Jesus Forgives Abortion
Always when April comes I think of new life. I was born in April, the new life of Spring sometimes shows itself in April, I was born a second time around April, and most elegantly and wonderful of all, Easter Sunday is oft times in April. And with Easter Sunday, a Christian with my background cannot help thinking of it without thinking about sin, death, and a Resurrected Savior.
This Easter is special because my birthday is Saturday, April 19th. It falls directly between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and in my mind, it’s the perfect time to tell my story and witness to the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I had my first abortion when I was seventeen. I was young and foolish and scared, and it was what people around me thought was best. I may have even been more scared of having a child at seventeen than of keeping my appointment at Planned Parenthood. When I walked out of the clinic that day Guilt left with me, and I knew (even though I wasn’t at all religious) that I was going to hell. More visits to Planned Parenthood became easier. I was damned. What did the sin of another abortion add to the one I’d already had? Nothing. In my mind, I couldn’t have sinned any worse than I did on that first visit.
Fast forward to 1992. I’d been living a sinful and lonely existence for all of my twenty-five years. Then there was the day when my boyfriend at the time handed me some cassette tapes that his dad had given him of a local preacher preaching from the book of Revelation urging me to listen to them. On the day I listened to them I remember feeling fear rising up in me and enveloping me like a flood. I was not a part of what the preacher called the “family of God”, and I knew it. All the wonderful things he mentioned that would happen to those in the family of faith would not be happening to me because of the great sins of my past. The question burned in me: If all these horrible things were going to happen to those outside the family of God, then how does one become part of that family? Frantic for an answer, I popped the very last cassette of the series into my Walkman. “If you would like to become a part of the family of God,” the preacher said in a soft but firm voice, “pray this prayer with me…” So, I knelt down in front of my green rented couch and prayed the prayer with the preacher. When I stood up, I was a completely different person. It was that simple, and that instantaneous. In the blink of an eye the years of guilt were gone, and I had a new heart and a new life because of faith in the Son of God. This is the Gospel!
That was over thirty years ago, and I am somewhat ashamed to say that it never occurred to me to share my story more publicly until now. You can imagine why I would hesitate to confess such sins, but think of how powerful Jesus’ work on the cross must be to have happened so long ago and yet able to reach a young, sinful woman kneeling alone in her apartment over two thousand years later! It would be wrong of me, I think, to go to my grave keeping this great Gospel News to myself, especially during Easter.
If you have had an abortion or if you have supported someone getting one or performed abortions, you have sinned grievously against God. And you can be forgiven gloriously by His Son. The power of sin and guilt is no match against the power of a Resurrected Savior. Let this Holy Week be the week you repent, turn and be saved. I will be praying for you!
Happy, Happy Easter.