Pain and Praying

 He looked at her and said, “I was going to be a dad. Sarah was gonna have a baby but thought it best to end the pregnancy. She told me she wasn’t ready to be a mother.” As the words come out of Al’s mouth Mrs. Williams seemed to bear the words on her shoulders. She began to slump, with her head bowed low as if to pray.

Al heard her praying, it was not like other times. This time as she prayed it was as if she was in a great struggle. As if she was battling a great hidden force, a force that even claimed her right to pray.  “Precious Father,” she said, “Giver of life, Author of creation, a great evil is befalling our land. You just heard your son talk of the life he fathered being blown out like a candle. I fear our land is coming to the edge of a great cliff and if we take another step, we are lost. How can we be at the place where we say it is fine, our right, to kill a precious life within us? Father, please forgive Sarah for such a decision. I know her mind has been blinded by the spiritual influences of selfishness and ignorance. I know she wouldn’t have destroyed her child if she had only known that her baby was a gift. Dear Father, forgive her.”

            Al listened as she was still praying. Now her voice was whispered and hardly able to be heard. Sitting close to her he placed his arm around her shoulder as if to support her in her struggle with angelic and demonic forces. She continued to pray for quite some time. When she finally looked up at Al, she looked tired and drained. Her face was wet with tears and she hesitated to talk. “Dear Al,” she said, “I am so afraid for our land. We tell children they can’t pray in school, that it isn’t right to talk about God in public. And, now our country is going to allow the killing of innocent babies.”

In her whispered voice, she continued, “Mark my words, it won’t be months from now and killing the innocent unborn will be the law of the land. I have heard and listened to young women who don’t want to be tied down. I talked with women who have been victims of rape and abuse and my heart breaks for them. I ask them to bring their child into the world and give her child as a gift to a childless couple. They tell me that it is a wonderful idea but that I don’t understand. I am not going to judge Sarah for what she did, that is over and past. Let’s remember that the Good Lord is the giver of all life.”