"Your Epidermis is Showing"

I used to go around telling people when I was about 8 or 9 that their epidermis was showing. I guess someone older had taught me that, but most of the people my age didn't know what it meant. They would look down to see if anything was showing that wasn't supposed to, and they would usually say something like "no, it's not".  They would look because they had ignorance about what it meant. I've heard it said that when we know better than we should do better. Unfortunately, in the case of abortion I think that ignorance is what makes people think there isn't really a life that is being snuffed out because they can't see the epidermis showing.

The question is being asked by many the last few days due to a politician asking someone else "when does life begin". I can't help but think that many believe babies don't have rights because life begins when the epidermis is showing, and before birth only the Mother has all the "reproductive rights". Reproduction means the act of reproducing or the condition or process of being reproduced. The process of reproducing occurred at conception, and all the "reproductive rights" were with the choice of what two people used to prevent or not prevent that conception.

Watching the news today we can see there are more racial issues today than ever, and many people feel that there is injustice for those whose epidermis' are different. If we truly wanted to show that we care for all human life, and skin color doesn't matter than shouldn't we protect life even when the epidermis isn't showing for the most weak and vulnerable? When we say all lives matter...do they really matter in the womb? Obviously, we can all see how horrible it is that a man is running away and shot in the back by someone who is sworn to uphold the law and protect life. Their epidermis was showing and we could see that the officer was white and the man running was black. Many feel like it was motivated by their epidermis showing. It's not in the news as often, but we just saw in Milwaukee how crime is increasing in the low income neighborhoods and all based on where they happened to live more than the color of their epidermis.

In China we can see that girls (in this case their gender is showing) are discarded like trash because they have a different chromosome that is not as valued as another chromosome. We can all agree how horrible that is that they would tell people that they can't keep their child, because the heart of a Mother is to protect her own flesh and blood. We can also see how horrible it is that women are traded into sexual slavery by groups like Boko Haram. We can see that Coptic Christians are being beheaded and know that they are being killed because their beliefs are showing and different. We can all agree how horrible it is that these atrocities happen all around us.

I just can't understand why people aren't as horrified that a baby can be burned, or have its limbs torn off because its epidermis isn't showing. An aborted babies only crime is that it happened to be "reproduced" in the wrong uterus, and deemed by "choice" to be undesirable because it might inconvenience the people that practiced their or didn't practice their "reproductive rights".

Even if we can't see their epidermis there is one that can see each life even in the womb, and was there at the very conception. I know the day that all my children were conceived, including my daughter (through the wonderful choice of adoption) Chloe, even though I didn't understand it at the time. I was awoken at 3 am on January 27, 2004 to pray for my baby girl. I had a picture of her in my head. I thought it was the day she was born, but God showed me later it was the day she was conceived. The interesting thing is that God gave me the words to speak that day and I prayed that God would form her inward parts perfectly. I even wrote it all down in a journal. I didn't realize that I was praying for her conception, but I was. God makes it clear that He knows and cares deeply about all people from the womb to the tomb.

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my should knows it very well. Psalms 139:12-13

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah 1:5

Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you, 'Do not fear, O Jacob my servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. Isaiah 44:2 

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Psalm 127:3

Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, You who have been borne by Me from birth And have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age I will be the same, And even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you. 'To whom would you liken Me And make me equal and compare Me, That we would be alike? Isaiah 46:3-5

I look at my daughter and can't imagine her not being here. I also look at my son Nathan and can't imagine him not being here, as it was recommended by a specialist that I "selectively abort" him. His amniotic fluid was dangerously low, and it would make it more possible for his twin Noah to have a healthy birth. How could I "choose" that Noah's life was more valuable than Nathan's life? How could I not trust their Creator that both of their lives were valuable?

I have the same heart as my Mother who worked with many women who struggled with "undesired" pregnancies. She loved babies and believed all life was precious and created by God. I remember she was so excited when the first pregnancy center was started in my home town, and her heart was to see many women served who were struggling and didn't have the support they needed in their pregnancy. She was leading on this issue to realize that we couldn't be "slapping" women with the Bible in condemnation if we wanted to help them to make the positive choice of life.

I worked at a Pregnancy Center for many years, and helped to start some post-abortion support groups. These women were often going through the same grieving process as if they had lost their baby from miscarriage or other forms of death. The thing that surprised me the most was the men who struggled with the decision of abortion as well. All abortion ends a life, but it also destroys families, which is often not talked about. I want any woman who has made the destructive decision to abort to know that there is hope and forgiveness on the other side of abortion. I have seen many times that God turns ashes of mourning into beauty, and can give the oil of gladness instead of grieving. The final stage of grieving is acceptance, and acceptance doesn't come until denial about the loss is done. I grieve that abortion has occurred in my family, and often think of the loss of a life that could have been. I pray for comfort for those who have lost especially because they don't understand they have lost. To me that is the saddest kind of loss!

I can't understand why some choose not to see, and I have to believe that they are just ignorant. I try to think of those kids who didn't understand their epidermis was showing, because they were ignorant that their epidermis was their skin. Unless they wore a burqa there was no way their epidermis wasn't showing. Technology seems to be changing hearts and minds because we can now see the life in the womb clearer than ever before. I think there are still many ignorant because they lack the knowledge that keeps many from understanding the truth. They don't understand that when there is a lack of a beating heart death is pronounced and therefore a beating heart is proof of life! I believe we have to try to understand and pray for those who don't believe abortion is taking a life, because too many of them believe life begins when their epidermis is showing. We must pray that they would no longer be ignorant of the fact that there is still life even when the epidermis isn't showing on the outside of the womb.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. - Benjamin Franklin