By John Catrett III

She felt much too young to be a grandmother.  However, it wasn’t long before she was thrilled with the fact of her oldest daughter expecting her first grandchild.  Although she had zero experience being a grandmother, she decided to do the one thing she knew grandmothers often did—knit an outfit for the new baby.  Even though she didn’t know the first thing about knitting, this would be her labor of love.  She secretly asked a friend at church to teach her the basics.  She purchased knitting needles, and since it was known the baby was a boy, she bought blue yarn and tediously began the ambitious project.

Knitting turned out to be a lot harder, and more time-consuming than she anticipated.   Night after night the young grandmother-to-be sat in front of the television and toiled away until eventually, a little sweater began to take shape.   “It looks pretty good if I have to say so myself!”  She mused trying to restrain her pride.  She couldn’t wait to give it to her daughter at the baby shower.

One evening she left the nearly finished sweater on the arm of the sofa while she went out for a couple of hours.  To her horror when she returned, she discovered the family dog had torn it to shreds.  She could not understand why their toy terrier would ever do such a thing, but that precious little sweater had been ripped up to the point it was not even recognizable.  She was understandably furious with the dog and so frustrated that all her work had gone for naught that she burst into tears.  Her labor of love had been needlessly completely destroyed.

David used a knitting analogy in Psalm 139:13-16 to describe how God had formed him in his mother’s womb: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  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.  Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

This young grandmother had all kinds of options – to start again, have someone help, or go buy a present.  But, have you ever wondered how God must feel when a doctor has chosen the mother as his patient and performs an abortion on her fetus at her request?  Has His heart broken over the lost children every time this has occurred over the centuries? Has His wrath fueled in earnest toward the doctors every time?  It must be devastating for each time His work, knitting each one individually be His own hand, to be completely destroyed. What a dreadful thing it will be for those who have done so and never asked for His mercy and forgiveness to fall into the hands of the living God.

I wonder who David had in mind when he wrote the final paragraph of Psalm 139:  “If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!  They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.  Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?  I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.  Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:19-24).

We pray that our nation will repent and turn from abortion as an easy form of birth control.  We also pray for those who have had an abortion.  This is a surgical procedure that will have a lifetime effect.  We do not wish for times to revert back to coat hangers in back rooms, but we do want all who are affected by this to know you will always be EFFECTED.  Seek out His will – talk with others, be frank and accountable. There are other choices.  Whatever your decision, you are not walking it alone – He is with you.  He is ready and willing when you are ready to receive God’s forgiveness and comforting embrace of mercy and grace.