When Does Life Begin?

“When does my life begin?” I ask myself. “When did You, Lord, breathe life into me?” I feel the warmth and security wrapped in my mother’s womb. I cuddle and press securely against her insides. She feels me flutter as I get excited. A week ago I was hiccupping in this fluid. Things are dark and unexplained, but I feel God’s Presence as He knits me together. It is my 16^th week birthday. My parts are now fully formed. My fingers and toes have nails and even fingerprints! I am about five inches long and weigh about 3 ounces. I feel vibration and hear the hum of music outside. I enjoy grasping and pulling the umbilical cord that is near me. “When does my life begin?”

            Two weeks have gone by. Time seems irrelevant and surreal. I am 19 weeks old. If the idea of my existence seemed remote, nothing makes it more real than when my mother feels me move and kick. I squirm and pass time doing back flips. Space continues to grow and I must be growing too.

            Things are happening. I am wiggling and twisting. Space feels cramped. I cradle and rest my head in my mother – surrounded and protected by her. My excitement is almost unbearable. I close my eyes. When I open them I see my mother and father gazing down at me with love. Sheer grace and love which makes the background fade from my vision. I fix my eyes on theirs. I blink my eyes trying to comprehend what is happening. Longing to express love for my parents, I snuggle deeply into my mother’s breast and fall asleep. “Has my life now begun or was it long ago?”

            “When does my life begin?” he asks himself. “When did You, Lord, breathe life into me?” He feels warmth and security wrapped comfortably in his mother’s womb. He presses against his mother’s insides. She feels him flutter as he gets excited. A week ago he was hiccupping in his mother’s amniotic fluid. Things are dark and unexplained, but he feels God’s Presence as God knits him together. It is his 16^th week birthday. His parts are now fully formed. His fingers and toes have nails and even fingerprints! Right now he is about the size of an avocado. In the next few weeks he will double his weight and add inches to his length. His heart pumps about 25 quarts of blood each day and that amount is increasing as he develops. He feels vibration and hears the noises outside. He enjoys grasping and pulling the umbilical cord that is near him. “When does my life begin?” he wonders.

            Things are happening. Time seems irrelevant and surreal. He feels uncomfortable and weak. He no longer feels snug and secure in his mother’s body. Hearing the familiar voice of his mother, he senses something is wrong. His mother doubts his existence. Soon he feels something cool and ruthless probe him. His life in the womb fades with darkness and confusion. He was dilated and evacuated (D&E) from the safe haven of his mother. Things are left dark and unexplained. “When did his life begin?” He gazes down on his mother and father with Christ’s love and forgiveness, wrapped securely in God’s Presence for Eternity. His life on earth was taken from him before it began.

Please Pray for the Abolition of Abortion!!

Psalm 139

¹You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.