Have you ever noticed that it takes an adult to explain to a
child that dandelions are not pretty flowers? A child looks at dandelions and sees these
magnificent beauties that would look perfect in a jar on mommy’s kitchen table.
Apparently, a grown-up’s duty is to inform these little people that dandelions are
ugly. That they are unwelcome,
bothersome weeds that should be destroyed—poisoned, cut down, dug up, and
permanently disposed of—so we can be free to enjoy our yards the way they are
meant to be: plain and green, with no trace of those hideous yellow intruders. A child would never come to this conclusion
alone. A child must be taught the strange
ways of the adult world.
A few years ago, I was faced with the task of explaining to
my 11-year-old daughter what abortion is. I knew the burden I was about to
place on my innocent girl, and I knew I was chipping away a little more of that
protective covering she had enjoyed all these years. As I began to speak, I
struggled to find my voice as though it were the first time I had ever formed a
sentence. Inside, I fumbled and choked
on my words but on the outside, I managed to appear composed and articulate.
Each utterance was carefully considered before it left my mouth and entered my
daughter’s ears, mind, and heart, where it would permanently settle for the
rest of her life. I was looking at my first born child and telling her that
sometimes, for reasons I cannot understand, a mother thinks of that tiny
life growing inside her as nothing more than a dandelion.
Alison’s reaction should come as no surprise to anyone - she
was utterly speechless. I watched the confusion and disbelief appear in her
eyes, and we sat in deafening silence. Not once did she nod slowly, absorbing the
information, and then thoughtfully say, “Well, I suppose a lady has a right to
do what she wants to her own body.”
There was never a moment where Alison assumed that unborn babies aren’t
really babies at all but simply unviable masses of tissue. My daughter, at only 11 years old, understood
exactly what abortion is. And she was properly
horrified.
As I taught my own baby girl about abortion, we discussed the
beauty of life and the precious gift that it is. We considered the unbearable pain for both the mother and unborn child. As we talked about the more
than 50 million babies that have been cut down and destroyed as though they
were common weeds, we imagined them as beautiful babies made whole,
and we grieved for all of them.
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart…” Jeremiah 1:5
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