Scrolling through Facebook briefly this morning, I saw a news article about Lindsay Clancy, the woman who strangled her three children after hearing voices telling her to kill them. The label given to her for hearing those voices is “postpartum psychosis”—or, another way to say it when you hear voices telling you to commit murder: demon possession.
I scrolled down past that article and saw a pro-life ad that read: “Choose Life, Your Mom Did.”
Interesting verbiage.
Even with a pro-life ad, people still fall into this way of looking at things.
After all, it’s so appealing to the human nature.
The human nature responds to this message: “You, oh Mighty One, are in charge. You make the decision. You are the ultimate controller. Look at you, so powerful, with the decision to choose life or death just sitting there in your palm. You hold the same power over each. Make your decision. We will await the verdict, helplessly. Make this decision as you do all decisions in your life with total independence and authority.”
The debate then becomes: what will you choose? You can choose life, or you can simply choose against life. Like voting, and there are two opposing parties vying for your ballot.
Christians understand that this view is not a true reflection of reality. We are not in control of life; we do not create it, nor are not the masters of it. We are not God, nor do we sit on a throne of absolute authority, breathing life into creation. We have deluded ourselves into believing we possess such strength; intoxicated by the seductive poison of worldly power and autonomy—an illusion fueled by our sinful nature.
We can destroy life, it is true. That is our superpower, so to speak. But even that has to be allowed by God.
So our choice lies in murder. We can choose to do evil, to harm, and to take the life of another person.
But God creates. God gives. God chooses that life should exist. God breathes that life into mankind, and without His creating it, there is no life. Without His ordination that it be so, we cannot bring anything into existence.
So the ad should say: “Keep the life God gave to you. Do not murder.”
Moms have been given life by God Himself, and with it a sacred charge to guard, defend, nurture, and raise up their children in Him.
In short, moms have been given the task of loving well—which means giving up their very lives for their children.
And that is what moms ought to do every single day: die for their children.
Die to self. Die to ambition. Die to pride. Die to worldly lusts. Die to selfishness.
Die daily in order that they might give all that is necessary to those little lives given to them by God.
