March is a wonderful month! Three of my favorite people were born in March: my mother-in-law, husband and brother-in-law—Sharon, Scott and Eric.
As a young woman in the 1960s, Sharon was told it was highly improbable that she would ever get pregnant. But she did! Twice! And because of that, she now also has seven beautiful grandchildren.
“I was visiting my older sister after she had her fifth child,” remembers Sharon. “I watched her baby and quietly cried, ‘Lord, I only want one.' Nine months to the day, Scott was born. And four years later, Eric.” She gives glory to God for her sons' existence. So do I!
Grandma Sharon got to be with five of her seven grandchildren for Thanksgiving 2012 when Bailey (left) flew out with her little sister Bella (bottom right) to visit the Arizona Sprys--from left--Jared, Uncle Eric, Anna, Aunt Amy and Ethan.
Probabilities
What is the probability that ANY of us are even here?
“Not only are you and I contingent, we are highly improbable! Yet here we are. Mirabile visu (Wondrous to behold)!” says Msgr. Charles Pope of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian in Washington, D.C.
Physician and philosopher Dr. Ali Binazir did the calculations and proposed that the chances of anyone existing are one in 10 to the 2,685,000th power. In other words, you are totally improbable! I need infographics and word pictures to understand numbers this immense. So thanks, Dr. Binazir, for this analogy:
“Imagine there was one life preserver thrown somewhere in some ocean and there is exactly one turtle in all of these oceans, swimming underwater somewhere. The probability that you came about and exist today is the same as that turtle sticking its head out of the water — in the middle of that life preserver. On one try.”
How anyone can believe our existence depends on such randomness and chance is stunning. We are no mere coincidences. God has always known us, intended us, loved us, and planned for us.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Msgr. Pope asserts, “The great mystery of our existence stretches back in time into the very heart and mind of God who has always known and loved us, has prepared for us and made a way for us. You are wonderfully and fearfully made, and God has done a marvelous thing.”
Knowing how precious and pre-planned each of us is should highly motivate us to protect the most innocent and defenseless among us. No matter our gender, race, abilities or circumstances of conception, ALL humans are worth protecting.
No Such Things as “Pro-Choice” When it Comes to Life
Just because someone doesn’t like abortion, doesn’t make her pro-life. As a young woman, I used to think I was pro-life, but upon closer consideration, I reasoned that I just didn’t like abortion or want it to happen.
But then I realized that thinking it was ok to kill some babies—those conceived by rape—but not others, is NOT pro-life. I came to terms with reality: it is a human and I either choose to advocate for his existence or stay silent and become complicit in her destruction. Apathy was no longer an option.
I’m completely pro-choice when it comes to marriage, dinner and hair color. But when it comes to unborn humans, pro-choice means pro-abortion. Just because someone doesn’t want or like the idea of babies being aborted, doesn’t mean he is willing to exhort mothers, lawmakers or the culture-at-large to protect them. This issue is so divisive because choosing sides is a matter of life and death.
“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!”
Answers to the Pro-Abortion Arguments
Did you know, you were never a fertilized egg? Embryologists know that you became a distinct, living and genetically whole human being at the point of conception when your father’s sperm fused with your mother’s egg.
“Something nonhuman does not become human by getting older and bigger; whatever is human must be human from the beginning.” - Randy Alcorn
Read this free e-book online, "ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments" by Randy Alcorn HERE
March is Trisomy Awareness Month
I’m thankful for all the children—born and preborn—who have extra chromosomes. My cousin Curtis has trisomy 21, also known as Down syndrome. Michigander Faith Smith has trisomy 18; read her awesome story HERE. See Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s proclamation about awareness of children with trisomy HERE.
Curtis with his mom, my dear Aunt Erma; chillin' in the hammock and grilling' dogs in Paris, Michigan; Jacob and Curtis in Waterford, Michigan
Curtis loves being with family! He lives in Texas but spends time with us in Michigan during the summer months. If you meet him, expect an invitation to his birthday party.
March is Women’s History Month
I’m thankful for all the wonderful women in my life and those from the past who have made my life better. Tragically, millions of women were never born, killed before birth because of their gender.
Alerting the world to this human-rights catastrophe and demographic disaster, Nobuko Horibe--former Director of the United Nations Population Fund’s Asia and Pacific Regional Office--addressed the seriousness of sex selection in her 2011 international forum speech on the issue:
“We must join forces to ensure that sex selection is understood as discrimination against women and girls and should end. We must accelerate our efforts and give priority to developing programmes and policies that foster norms and an attitude of ‘zero tolerance’ for discrimination, harmful attitudes and unethical practices, such as prenatal sex selection. Gender equality is at the very heart of each country’s successful development.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged in a 2013 MSNBC interview that sex discrimination via abortion has far-reaching consequences:
“Gendercide: What happened to 100 million baby girls? There has been so many cases where girls are either not born or allowed to die or denied health care, so they die before they're five years old. With the result that there is an imbalance between women and men of 100 million. Think of what that's going to mean in certain parts of the world, particularly Asia — where this imbalance is most acute — when you have a very large population of young men who can't find wives. A kind of — potential social instability that that breeds. So this is not only about the tragedy of young girls not being given what is needed in order to survive and live, but what it might mean in terms of too many young men.”
These past decades have borne out the consequences. Nations are having to come to grips with attitudes and policies that created this tragic imbalance. A 2018 essay “Too Many Men” by Washington Post writers Simon Denyer and Annie Gowen asserts: “The consequences of having too many men, now coming of age, are far-reaching: Beyond an epidemic of loneliness, the imbalance distorts labor markets…and parallels increases in violent crime, trafficking or prostitution in a growing number of locations.”
Ideas have consequences. Bad ideas have victims. What kind of world would this be, if instead of trying to eliminate females or children with disabilities, we celebrated their existence and welcomed them joyfully, choosing adoption when we aren't prepared to parent? Joy exists, not in the absence of hardship, but regardless of it because of who we trust. It cannot be contrived but only achieved when we submit to the reality of our Creator's design.
Children are a blessing and a gift from the LORD. Psalms 127:3
Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. Matthew 25:34