A Heavy Heart

I read two articles over the past two days that just left my heart HEAVY.  So heavy I can hardly stand to carry it on my own. 

The first was an article about a couple that is giving up everything to become missionaries in Haiti.  Below is an excerpt that tore my heart to pieces:

He told about a mom to two young children with a new hungry baby girl. The mom was starving and her milk had dried up. There was no room for the baby at an orphanage, so she killed the baby with a rock rather than watch it starve to death.

“Can you feel the gut-wrenching poverty that would make you kill a baby?” he asked the crowd.

To me this is completely unthinkable!  How could a mother kill her own baby?   A mother should never even be faced with these trials.  Can you imagine knowing someone whose children are literally starving to death and facing these trials?  It's hard isn't it.  If we knew of starving children in our neighborhood, the majority of us would be at the door saying "Here Am I".  We would feed them, we would care for them, we would love them.

“Why does this happen?” he said. “Many ask, ‘Why does a good God allow this to happen?’

“I have another question. Why do good Christians allow this to happen?"

“Go into all the world,” said Vanderpool about Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28. “He said, ‘Go.’

(Read the rest of this article here)

I also read an article about abortion someone posted on facebook from www.lifenews.com.  Somehow I have been blinded by this issue for the last 29 years.  Yes, I knew that thousands of babies are aborted.  I have even heard the story of a girl who was aborted, and survived to be adopted into a wonderful Christian home.  But somehow I didn't know how often babies actually live through abortion.  I read three horrific stories about babies that survived abortion, but then were left to die.  Placed in specimen pans, wrapped in disposable towels, even shoved in a closet - gasping for breath, lungs heaving.  With doctors, nurses, and all the medical care possible available, these babies are left to die simply because their mother wanted an abortion.  Their frail little lives are treated as if they have no value.  Nurses have lost their jobs fighting for these babies.  I read about nurses holding these babies, rocking them in their arms, and even baptizing them, nurses loving these babies until they took their last breath.  Babies without names.  My heart goes out to those in the medical field who face this struggle.  Can you imagine seeing this?  Which one of us would not do all that we could to save these little ones gasping for air?  Which one of us would not be screaming "Lord Here Am I"?

In the US there is an average of 3700 abortions a day!  It's a silent homicide.  We all know about abortion, I've always been Pro-Life, but I've never pictured these babies gasping for air and being left to die all alone, some living for hours before they finally pass.  Babies dying when so many families would be willing to adopt them.  Babies dying by their mother's choice while women are literally being dragged into abortion clinics in China against their will. 

I feel compassion towards the Haitian mother who loved her child, who wanted to feed her baby, who was willing to give up her baby for adoption to allow her to live, but in the end was left hopeless. While 3700 women a day in the US kill their babies for selfish reasons - because a baby is too much of a burden for them, because they believe their baby has a disability, or deformity.  The answer to this problem is adoption.  One mother pursued adoption for her child but was turned away, while 3700 women a day in the US don't give it a second thought.

What is this world that we live in?  How much longer must we suffer Lord?  How much longer must we wait for your return?

“Why do good Christians allow this to happen?"

The fight is ours.  Against poverty.  Against abortion.  The fight for all of God's children is our fight.