Rutter — The Potter

My hand missed the pen I was trying to grab and, instead, I knocked the coffee cup off the table.

The ceramic cup my daughter Laura lovingly made me and personalized with a heart at its base, shattered all over the floor.

She’s replaced it with another cup she had on hand, but it’s not the same.

With midterm elections in full swing, this incident immediately makes me think of the abortion industry and the laissez-faire attitude it sells to convince women that, like my coffee cup, human life has little value; is merely a commodity of choice.

“Pregnant and feeling overwhelmed? We’ll help you get rid of that meaningless seed in your womb and get back to doing what you want,” it entices.

The industry’s complete denial of the sanctity of life is a tragedy that shuts down the human soul, rejecting the truth that we, too, are clay, lovingly made by God for a purpose.

“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5).

Each of us is a child of God created with inherent dignity, inherent worth.

Sadly, by cutting ourselves off from this truth, we choose to forfeit our dignity and worth.

We deny the truth that creation is born out of the love between a man and a woman and instead try to manipulate the miracle of life for our own control.

We may prosper on the outside while living solely for ourselves but gain nothing of value with this mindset.

The women (and even men who were a part of it) who have shared with me their stories of abortions have always expressed the grief and regret caused by them.

Whether out of desperation, fear, shame, economic distress or inconvenience, whatever reason a woman turns to abortion, God’s love for her does not diminish.

As Rachel Bulman says, “There is not a moment of our lives that is outside the sovereignty of God or where he is not present. He is always there and desires to heal all things and bring us home to his heart” (p. 20, With All Her Mind).

Located throughout the country, pregnancy resource centers are a wonderful resource for women who find themselves pregnant and in need of help.

Focused on women’s well-being, they have a common mission to provide a safe place for women to discuss ways to have their babies and help them throughout their pregnancies.

“Of the more than 4,400 at-risk mothers we’ve served here, we have never met a mother who wanted to kill her baby, she just felt she had no other choice,” says Joe Dalton, head of the PRC of Rolla. “Our success rate is 99.6% in helping them through their crisis. We calm them down and help them through their pregnancies, giving God all the credit.”

God is our heavenly Father, the redeemer, the Creator of all that is good. He is not just a potter, but he is a good shepherd who leads us through dark valleys (Psalm 23:4).

God aches with and for us, holding his arms out wide to enfold us when we turn to him.

Knowing we are an imperfect people, Jesus gave his life to forgive us of our sins.

It is in him we find our dignity, our worth, our purpose.

And so I pray: Dear Lord, imbue us with the love for life. Give us the strength to be defenders of life, seeing Christ is one another, while fighting industries that manipulate the vulnerable into having abortions.