Who Are We?

The woman stood in front of the congregation to tell her story. She had never spoken to such a large group before. I was in the auditorium “by chance” that day. I had come to hear my grandchildren sing. But an extended conversation in the hallway meant I missed my intended purpose that day.

I went home knowing I had been there for a reason very different from the one I had planned.

Her story drew me in. She had been pregnant for the second time. She spent weeks in bed nurturing a baby her doctors told her would never survive. And even if the child did survive, it would never walk, never be normal.

“It”. It is such an awful word when referring to a human being.

She should have an abortion now, they said. She fought the doctors. She finally found one who wanted to help her, to help her baby survive.

The weeks turned into months. The child arrived–a girl. She would not survive, the doctors said. But she did.

As this mother finished her talk, the doors at the back of the church opened and a little girl did not walk down the church aisle.

She ran. Beautiful, perfect, running. She was never an it.

She is set to graduate from college this spring. She has lived what we in America consider to be the most normal of lives.

All discussions about unborn life, life limited by illness or disability, center on one question: Who are we? Are we sacred souls made in the image of a great God who loves all, weak or strong?

Or are we just a mixture of electrical synapses and chemical reactions, a useful collection of spare parts?

One mother knows the difference.

Deep down, we all know it too.

Photo Credit: Pexels

Nancy E. Head’s Restoring the Shattered is out in paperback! Get your copy here!

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26 Replies to “Who Are We?”

  1. What a beautiful story, Nancy, I wonder how many of those stories there are, how many wonderful people who were “not supposed to” survive.
    I was visiting a church to sing some of my original songs, one of which was called “Somewhere, Someone Is Praying.” The second is the story of a teenager “contemplating doing what the world has told her is her right,” who changes her mind when “in the next apartment there’s a baby crying in the night.” (Because somewhere, someone was praying.)
    Afterwards, a woman came up to me with tears in her eyes and told me she was that girl. And as a little boy just out of the nursery came running down the aisle to his mom, she added. “And this is my son.”

  2. Thanks Nancy! This is a story I have heard from many parents who have delivered healthy children after they refused to take the proscribed abortion route due to their faith in God.

    1. Thanks for sharing that, Jon. Far too many families have faced this horrible pressure. Sadly, I’m sure many have succumbed. And children, with health challenges or without, all have valuable lives. Thanks and God bless!

  3. Oh that divine spark that separates us humans from all other living things. It comes as a result of an almighty being, God, Jehovah, the great I Am, who made us in His image. Praise His name and let all tremble who do not hold him in reverence. He is in control. His is the final word. To Him be all glory.

  4. An image bearer of God will never be an it. God counts each life as precious and valuable. Thank you for this beautiful story to remind us what’s at stake.

  5. The very idea of killing one’s own child sickens me each time this topic is breached. I was a pregnant teenager who was pressured to abort, but who stood alone against every person urging me to do so. Some even told me that they hoped I miscarried. Why speak a curse over someone in my situation? In 1977 abortion seemed like a quick and easy solution. I knew it was not. It was an act that the first feminists soon after WW1 denounced as an act entirely outside of true womanhood. I agree. Don’t allow yourself to be pressured.

    1. It is a rough go for many today to withstand the pressure to abort. The feminists of the 19th century in America understood this concept also. I’m so glad God gave you this discernment, Melinda. May He bestow that wisdom on others today. May women seek His wisdom. Thanks, Melinda. God bless!

  6. God knows so much more than the doctors. If I had done any testing on my pregnancy with our son, I’m sure the doctors would have told me to abort. And, although he only lived a few days, he (not it) had a purpose. I trust God’s ways even when my heart doesn’t

  7. This is beautiful, Nancy. And so very familiar. I head a lady talk in church once with a similar story. Doctors wanted her to abort the pregnancy because tests showed the baby would never make it. The back doors opened and a little girl ran down the isle with her mother saying, “meet my miracle.”

  8. What a beautiful story of life. So many emotions and decisions are wrapped in this story but they are captured in life designed by God for each and every person, in the womb and outside of it. Thank you for sharing this blessed story, Nancy.

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