One quiet night in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago changed everything. Jesus is the right for every wrong. He is the answer to every woe. He is the light in every dark place. He is the joy in every kind of sorrow. Christians rightly rejoice in the birth of our Savior during the Christmas season.
As I was gazing at a nativity the other day, I started thing about Mary- the teenage unwed virgin in a strict Jewish culture who found herself pregnant and afraid and unsure of how all of this was going to play out. How would her fiancé react to this news? What would her family think? This was not part of the plan.
The Lie
Almost nothing is as life altering as having a child or for some, not having a child. Both bear witness to our complete lack of control. There is nothing we can do.
Whichever want is not being met, facing a “planned” or an “unplanned” pregnancy or not being able to have the baby we so desire, our tendency is to shake our fist at God as if to say, “I know better than you!”
We believe the lie that we are, or should be, in control of our own lives, our own wombs. “My body, my choice.”
In truth, God can be so unAmerican sometimes. Our pursuit of happiness is not utmost to Him; our pursuit of holiness is, and God is relentless in doing whatever it takes to make us more like Him.
I have walked with close friends through infertility and adoption and those who have been faced with an unplanned pregnancy. These are hard roads. The resounding and often painful truth behind procreation is that none of us ever control or decide when we conceive or adopt a child; It is only God.
Every pregnancy or adoption is unplanned by us, and always planned by a sovereign God. We may plan and chart and implant and use cutting edge science toward that end, but it is ONLY God who plants the seed and causes growth.
“So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:7
The Choice
Let’s look at Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her choice in the pregnancy she did not plan.
“But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.’
‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.’
John 1:30-38
Did the angel knock on her door and say, “Hey, by the way, umm Mary? Can God use your womb to grow His only Son Jesus? Will you raise this child that you didn’t plan to have? I know you are not sexually active, and I know it is your body and all, but could I borrow your uterus? Pretty please?”
No. The angel said, “You WILL conceive and give birth to a son…The Holy Spirit WILL come upon you…the power of the Most High WILL overshadow you.” God even picked out the name. Talk about not being in charge of your body.
Mary would be the prime candidate for an abortion in today’s world. A single, unwed mother, who would be disowned by her family for having a baby and who would have no way to support a child.
How does Mary respond? Mary chose life because God chose it for her first. She submitted to His choice instead of rejecting His will. She reacts with obedience and trust, willing to endure cultural shame and fear of the unknown for God’s plan and God’s glory.
Even though God was in it, it was not glamorous. She rode on a donkey for miles and miles while nine months pregnant. She had her baby in a barn and he slept in a feeding trough. No epidural, no hospital nurses, no ice chips, no nursery.
The Son of Man had no place to lay his head, and later she watched Him suffer and die. God would serve Mary the most bitter pill any mother could have to swallow. And yet God was in it all, was there with her, was glorified, and the faith He gave her to endure it all was enough. Where God calls us, He equips us.
The Plan
God gives lots of air time to two unborn babies in the first chapter of Luke. He could have skipped to the birth, but the unborn matter infinitely to Him.
There is great value in their stories from conception and birth into life and to death. God had a plan before their parents ever planned or conceived them.
The angel appeared to Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah in Luke 1:11-17.
“Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Mary visited Elizabeth in Luke 1:41-44 and “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.’”
Let it not be lost on us that the first person to recognize the Son of God was an unborn baby.
John leaped for joy in his mother’s womb! He had emotions and physically responded to the presence of unborn Jesus. God again gave a name to the child and had a plan for his life even before conception. The unborn baby, John, whom we know as John the Baptist, was filled with the Spirit of God.
The Body
Our bodies are either created as objects of our possession for our glory or they are vessels of grace for God’s glory. There is no middle ground.
“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” 1 Corinthians 10:26
“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT)
You do not belong to yourself. Your body is not yours; therefore your uterus is not yours. A baby inside of your uterus is not yours, either. To believe that our bodies or even our children belong to us is a well crafted lie. His body, His choice.
Mary easily could have scoffed at God. She could have rejected His ownership and control over her body in the name of “choice.” She could have seen her body as her possession for her own glory. Or, she could submit herself to God’s control of her body, which is already His, to use for His purpose and His glory.
For the believer in Jesus submitted to God’s will, we know deep down that we never know better than God. His plans are always good, even when they don’t feel good. His plans are always for hope and a future, even when life feels hopeless and the future looks bleak.
We cannot see the whole picture, but we can put our trust in the One who sees all, is in all, and works all things together for our good and for His glory. All things! The wonderful things, the inconvenient things, the painful things.
Yes, even a baby. Especially a baby.
We don't need an angel to come down and tell what to do when we are afraid or when things don't go according to our plan. God gave us His Word and He gives believers His Spirit.
There are only two choices for all of us- one leads to life, one leads to death.
We can learn from Mary's example that the answer to poverty is never death. The answer to inconvenience and unwanted circumstances is never death. The answer to disability is never death. We can look at humanitarian efforts all over the world and see that this is universally true.
Fear and pride and disobedience lead to death.
Submission and trust and obedience lead to life.
Mary chose life for the Author of life.
She rejected death for the One who would conquer death.
She bled for the baby who was born to bleed- not on the cutting room floor, but on a cross, giving His life as a ransom for many.
And the very best news is that Mary's crying baby Jesus will one day wipe away every tear from every eye. No woman will ever feel the need to choose between life and death for her child.
I realize this is not exactly a Christmas message. This is not a popular post by any stretch. It likely stirs up deep emotions in you. But as we reflect on Christ at Christmas, we must consider why He came- not to destroy life but to bring life. Not to give us autonomy apart from Him, but to bring us under His loving and perfect lordship.
His Word is clear: The wages of sin is always death. The way to God is always the path of life.
God rescues. God reconciles. He is Himself the light of LIFE. Jesus said,”I have come so you might have life and have it to the fullest.”
Choose life for yourself in Jesus. Choose life for the unborn whom God created with great purpose and love. This is when true, abundant life happens.
Jesus is the GREAT JOY that has come for ALL people.
My prayer this Christmas is to let every heart big and small, born and unborn, have the chance to prepare Him room.
Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.
Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.
-Charles Wesley
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If you are reading this and have had an abortion, this is not meant to shame you or to inflict additional pain or guilt. There is hope for us all only in Jesus who covers all of our mistakes and shortcomings in His perfect blood. He died on the cross for our sins- all of them- even the ones we struggle to forgive ourselves for- so that we would no longer live in bondage to our past and present imperfections. We have freedom in Christ when we trust Him, when we repent, when we follow Him. He gives us confident access to the Father, God, who has a great plans for your life. We all sin. We all fall short. But when we submit to Jesus, we can walk in newness of life and He will use our stories for His glory. Will you trust Him with yours?
