Dear Faye...

Love.

Love was what motivated me to write the following... A love for the invisible, beating heart of the unborn. 

It's formatted to be a letter from a woman named Maggie (a strong believer) to her best friend, Faye, (an atheist and extremely liberal on her views of abortion). I found that I could best convey my feelings through this fictional letter and, after receiving some feedback from a few loved ones, I decided to post it here on my blog. 

I do not claim to have the best arguments against abortion, because all I really know is that God creates every human being in His image (and that process starts at conception) and that it is wrong to kill. If anything, I feel that my logic and arguments are silly and weak, 

"But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." (2nd Cor 12:9) 

So I present to you my humble writing, my own kind of "dissertation" on a topic very dear to this timid heart:

Dearest Faye,

I apologize for my delayed response to your last letter, I’ve been battling the usual morning sickness (which I’ll add, lasts longer than just the morning) and haven’t had the time nor concentration to devote to a well written reply. Ever since you’re most recent letter though, I’ve been praying multiple times a day for you, whenever I think about you I pray for you. I hope you aren’t opposed to this, but knowing you as well as I do, I thought you wouldn’t object and therefore “went at it” without your consent. You’re probably shaking your head with that obstinate smile of yours right now, but I promise you, my friend, God will overcome (even in your most heathen of hearts). Ah, but I am glad that we can so openly discuss what we believe in (or don’t believe in, in your case) with each other for though we are so different, I know that at the foundation of it all is a friendship that has not only been maintained, but grown in a way that can only be explained as supernatural (if you don’t mind my using the term). Oh Faye, I eagerly await the day that you see with opened eyes just how much Jesus loves you!

However, let us continue on, for I have something very important to talk to you about. You are very well informed as to how “inconvenient” this pregnancy is, how I’ll have to drop out (indeed, am dropping out) of school so that I may prepare our minuscule apartment for a baby that may not live many months and what duration of life he or she does have could quite possibly be miserable...in fact, she may never come to our home but have to stay in the hospital. In this scenario, we are trusting God alone that we will be able to pay for the bills, but it looks like my husband will have to quit or postpone his schooling as well so as to work a day shift along with his regular night shift. Oh, so inconvenient! says everyone surrounding us. Yes, I will not be blind to the truth, it’s inconvenient, it takes us off of the course that we had planned, but what we firmly believe is that it is putting us on to the track that the Father has planned...which of course is the best of all. 

You say that, by only being in the first trimester, my baby inside of me isn’t even a person yet. You say that I could easily abort the child and life could continue on. Yes, it would continue on, but could I continue on knowing that a human life that I was responsible for would not continue because the existence of that life was not in my self-interest? No, I could not continue on, knowing that I had put this life to an end because of my selfish reasons. 

“Well, what about having compassion for this “human” inside of you?” you say; and I say in response, that at first glance it looks like it would be more humane to terminate such suffering that might occur, but I have a few reasons for begging you to glance twice. First and foremost, I believe in a God who performs miracles. So healing is not beyond His reach, and for this we will pray. 

But if God sees it best to not heal him/her, then I believe in a God who has a plan for every circumstance and situation in our lives and that this pregnancy, untimely as it is, is part of God’s will for my life and the furtherance of His kingdom. 

Any suffering that does occur, well, is not life full of suffering? Will not this child only be experiencing the consequences of our Fall from Eden? Let me use an example: sometime this year (and probably sooner than later with the way this weather is) you are going to catch a cold. What if I believe that having a cold is the most abominable thing to suffer and because I love you, I poison your water and you die? But I saved you from suffering, did I not? You are now free from experiencing the horrors of the common cold.  Or, what if you were to be in a car accident and experience several severe injuries that would result in no longer having the ability to speak? You continue through life and though to some you could be suffering, to you you’re just living life as fully as you would with or without your voice because you’ve found that you have an amazing skill for art and can now express yourself through paintings and pastels (or writing)? Someone that doesn’t know this though might come along and say, 

“My, what a horrible life to live without being able to speak! I would have rather not been born than have to suffer that.” 

Would you have preferred your parents giving birth to you had they foreknown that that would occur? I know that I would still be thankful for the life they’d given me. 

Perhaps to you these arguments are childish and you’re “tsking” and sighing at my arbitrary logic. But to me this makes sense, and it seems that it is quite obvious that at least one of these reasons is more than enough to support a belief for allowing the child a right to life. Feel free to question me on any of these points, I pray I would be able to make it clear to you that abortion at any stage is wrong. But God will show you in time. I know He will.

You’ll remember how Kate Middleton just recently gave birth to the baby George. Well, say that every single eligible candidate for the throne had died off and this pregnancy was the only hope of continuing the royal family--as soon as the tests came back positive that Kate was pregnant, everyone rejoiced. But Kate believes that the fetus isn’t a person till after the first trimester and because she doesn’t like the way pregnancy feels, she aborts the child. What would you say to that? Is the royal fetus in her womb any more important than the commoner fetus in the womb of the peasant? Yet why would the commoner’s abortion be accepted without question and Kate’s abortion be ridiculed because now the royal family will die off? Is the first trimester royal fetus more human than the first trimester commoner fetus? Am I making sense to you, Faye? These are simply some questions I’ve been pondering and because I can’t answer them myself, I thought I’d get your pro-choice perspective that I might be enlightened. 

Dear friend, my time is now used up and I must put aside my views and arguments to ask you quickly how your health is, how the job is going and what your Christmas plans are, before I lay down my pen and attend to the 15 other things that I must do. 

I shall now take my leave of your time... I eagerly await for your response, it always brighten my day to receive one of your letters and gives me more motivation to pray for you at all times. May God be with you and show you these truths when I can not. 

All my love,

~Maggie