Scott and I enjoyed a little more than 12 hours in Paris this past week, a stopover on our way to Presque Isle in northeast Michigan. The blackberries on our property were on the cusp of being ripe and ready to pick. In two hours, we scrounged up a couple of quarts, but in a few days there will be a bumper crop. He and Bella plan to go up again soon and harvest this delicious bounty. Mmmmmmmm.
Shades of "doneness". All are blackberries, some just need more time to develop. "Because it's not ripe must mean it's not really a blackberry yet." This illogic is at the heart of a fallacy often employed by abortion proponents. See THIS EXCELLENT link for more.
While picking in different areas, we both had some special moments with God's creation. He with a frog and I with a monarch butterfly. I had about five minutes with this amazing butterfly that let me get exceptionally close. I imagined that she had just emerged from her chrysalis and she was drying out, trying out her wings . . . and as I snuck in closer and closer, she pretended to ignore me but was really showing off. "Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who made the butterfly," I whispered as tears welled.
photo credit: Scott Spry
Muncha Muncha. Hungry Danaus plexippus busy at work.
Last month, I ordered some carry-out with curb-side service as I waited for Bella at her play practice. Before we hung up, the server asked for my vehicle make and color. I called as I pulled into the parking lot to let them know I had arrived. Bella and I waited. And waited. I saw the server inside the restaurant come to the door and check the parking lot a couple of times. Finally, I called to ask about my order. She confirmed my car color.
“Green. A green Jeep Compass,” I said slightly irritated and hung up.
“Mom!” cried Bella, “We are NOT in the Compass!”
As she said it, I realized it. I was not driving a green vehicle. I was in a red one. My face instantly flushed. I rushed out of my red vehicle into the restaurant and announced loudly, “I am SO SORRY, I am Shawn and I am NOT in a green vehicle. It’s red. I’m so sorry.”
The server smiled and gave me my order, which was now cold. Oh well.
As much as I wanted to instantly change the color of my vehicle to green, I would never have been able to do so. Instead, I had to get in line with reality and change my belief.
Perception. Certainty. Reality.
Our brain plays tricks on us. Our hearts play tricks on us. Our souls are no exception.
The beauty is that, as humans, though we may think beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are right about something, sometimes new facts lead to a change of heart and a change of action. This is what happened to Bernard Nathanson and Anthony Levatino. Both men used to help women "terminate pregnancies". And then something happened to each which changed their minds and turned their world upside down.
You can find each of their written stories by clicking on their names above. Both have a fabulous testimony of changed beliefs and a changed life. HERE also is a full video interview with Dr. Levatino.
Last Saturday morning, I was on the sidewalk at 6765 Orchard Lake Rd., reaching out to abortion workers, moms, dads and community members. I usually hold a sign that leaves no doubt about why we are there. I am getting bolder, lovingly calling out truth to those entering and exiting the abortion mill:
“Please come talk to us! We have good news!”
“God made us in his image and said we are very good.”
“Children are a gift from God.”
“God hates the hands that shed innocent blood.”
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
“Today is the day of salvation. Repent and be saved. Give up your rebellion.”
There is a restaurant in the same building, at the front of the abortion mill. A family pulled in and a man got out of his vehicle to go in for a carry-out order. When he came out, he approached me to say he was offended by my sign. He was upset that his seven-year old son saw my sign and wanted to know what it meant.
I wholeheartedly agree, the words on my sign are very disturbing.
It is exceedingly offensive that our country allows unborn babies to be killed at will, whenever a mother wants (yes, up until birth, see "Doe v Bolton".) It is so disheartening and disgusting that almost 60,000,000 babies have died this way since 1973 and continue to each day. It is exceedingly grievous that we live in a nation with legalized baby killing. The consequences are grim.
Yes, it is heartbreaking that a parent would have to explain to a child that a mother would take her unborn baby to someone to have her/him "terminated". This is the country and these are the times in which we live. It need not be so. We must love them both, caring for our unborn and the mothers who carry them. There are caring hands and resources available, no shortage of love, housing, health care, healing.
For facts on all the above, visit caseforlife.com and thepublicdiscourse.com
Before leaving the sidewalk in front of the abortion mill, I had a tough conversation with an Uber driver who was waiting for a woman that had paid him to drive her there.
I challenged him to think about his role as an accomplice to her baby’s death. He tried to justify himself, “Just doin’ my job.” When I asked, he said he wouldn’t be a driver for a bank robber.
He told me he was a Christian. I told him that no one who loves Jesus supports someone in obtaining an abortion. “She’s your sister! We're all related, interconnected. That baby is your brother or sister,” I implored.
And the physician—who took an oath to help and not harm, to provide life-affirming healing—arrived, parked in his handicapped spot and resolutely walked in to 6765 Orchard Lake Rd., to do his job . . . murdering small, defenseless humans.
“Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’
[Perception] ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ ~ Genesis 4:9 [Reality] The Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me . . .’” ~ Genesis 4:10