Look Again
When people consider women who are facing a crisis pregnancy, some might be tempted to lump them together and wonder “how anyone could be so flippant as to consider abortion”. But, friends, so many of the clients we encounter agonize deeply about their pregnancy decision. One abortion-determined client recently cried throughout her entire pregnancy test… murmuring things like “I know abortion is wrong… I never thought I’d find myself in this situation.”
The Bible offers hope for their predicament.
John chapter 20 tells us that on the first Easter morning, while it was still dark outside, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb where she thought the body of Jesus was. She was frantic when she realized His body wasn’t there. She was sure “someone had taken Him” and “put Him somewhere”. She stood outside His tomb crying.
Then, verse 11 says, “As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb.” I imagine that in Mary’s shock and confusion, she looked in the tomb one more time to make sure that Jesus’s body was not in that grave. But instead, she saw angels! And then she saw Jesus standing there! He was not dead – He was actually alive! And she cried out in her joy.
These verses can bring hope to our clients and to us: they encourage us to look again. Because of God and His gift of Jesus, who defeated sin and death for us, there’s always more to our situations than we’re able to see at first. Women who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant, or struggling with parenting, or grieving a past abortion – the Bible encourages them to look again. When we’re in the dark… when we’re struggling with our own uncomfortable predicaments…just as Mary did at the tomb in her confusion, we can look again. Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we can look at our situations for signs of life… for glimpses of God’s kingdom! We can look again for the love and mercy of Jesus. It will be on display. We have all been Created for Him.