CHRISTMAS EMOTIONS RUN DEEP

For Debbie and me, Christmas is a particularly poignant season. This time when the Child was born always reminds us how hard it was for us to have children. As we enjoy Jesus' birthday with our two wonderful children, Laura and David, we can't help but recollect the pain of two miscarriages, followed by the premature birth and subsequent death of twins.

On the day they were born, Aaron and Katherine were very much alive, and struggled to survive. We will never forget their valiant battle for life, their little chests heaving to draw breath. They cried, they wiggled, and they reacted in pain to the intravenous tubes inserted into their tiny bodies. They were alive. If born today, they would likely continue to live.

And yet, these living persons, little Aaron and Katherine, could have been legally aborted an hour before they were born, if we had been predisposed to do so. It would have been legal – and it would have been monstrous!

Debbie and I will never be the same, having held them in our arms, having prayed over them, and having wept at their graves. To us, theirs are the visible faces and audible cries of the millions of unborn Americans whose lives have been snuffed out by abortion.

Because of Aaron and Katherine, Christmas has taken on an expanded meaning for us. This special day marks the birth of a Child Who, had He been conceived today, might well have become a statistic of the abortion industry. The setting in which He was conceived, judged by current standards, would have made abortion a predictable "choice" today.

Consider the following circumstances.

His mother was young, unmarried, uneducated and poor. She was clearly unable to support a child on her own.

When her fiancee found out she was pregnant, his first thought was to call off the wedding. The Child's birth would only have brought increased hardship to a family already financially strapped.

Clearly, the Child would have a low quality of life.

Today, as you know, these circumstances comprise a classic profile for recommending abortion. It is chilling to think that, in our time, He through Whom the world was made would have been a likely candidate to end up in a dumpster behind a “clinic”!

Some would say, "Don't disturb me with such unpleasant thoughts, especially at Christmas." I would only ask one question: if just thinking about abortion is so troublesome – at Christmas, or at any time – then how much more ghastly is the fact that it happens a couple thousand times a day in our nation?

This Christmas, as you celebrate the birth of the Holy Child, may His Spirit stir your heart about the plight of our nation's unborn citizens, for whom He was born and died. Then, as you enter the new year, please do something in Jesus' name for the unborn children. Do it for His sake. And for theirs.