Photo: Four generations of Albers men.
by Diane Albers, President of Lutherans For Life
Change, change. Nobody likes change, least of all Lutherans! But, of course change is inevitable. From the moment you began, you changed very quickly. By the time you were attached to your mother’s uterus—a week after fertilization—you were a growing cluster of 100 cells.
“For you formed my inward parts: you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).
After you are born, adults will constantly comment on how big you are getting as you learn to walk and talk, and soon you are off to school. You are changing and growing into your own person, and suddenly—or so it seems to the adults in your life—you are graduating from high school. The next phase is job training or college and then a job. You get married and raise a family, and, all too soon, you are the one who needs the care from a son or daughter. Change is inevitable.
For a long time abortion was illegal, but change came with Roe v. Wade, and it was not a good change. At first, not many people protested this change, and even some religious leaders and church bodies agreed that it was a good decision. However, some church bodies, like the Roman Catholic Church and some Lutherans became more vocal For Life. Leaders like Lutherans For Life’s own Dr. Jean Garton, Nellie Gray (founder of the March for Life—there were 20,000 at the first March in 1974), Dr. Mildred Jefferson (President of National Right to Life, 1975), and Dr. Bernard Nathanson (former abortionist who produced the film The Silent Scream in 1984) began to educate people on preborn life.
Of course, things changed with the Dobbs decision, which moved the abortion issue back to the states. We know that our work is not done. We still have to support our pregnancy help centers and work with the politicians in our state to uphold life-affirming laws. But the whole abortion issue has changed with the mobile abortion units that travel along state lines, major companies paying for abortions and travel expenses for employees, and, worst of all, chemical abortion pills that can be ordered online without a doctor involved at all.
As the For Life movement grew up, other life issues have been added: living with disabilities, adoption and foster care, infanticide, cloning, stem cell research, physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and more. Life is being assailed from so many directions. This can be frustrating, horrifying, anger-inducing, and depressing. We want to uphold the blessings of Life that God gave us, but what can we really do to change things?
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:16-17).
We know that life with all its changes is a good and perfect gift from the Father, and nothing can change that. We know that there will always be changes in laws and politics, and we can only change that as best as we can. The comfort that we do know is that the Father does not change like shifting shadows.
In today’s world, changes are swift and inevitable, but our faith and trust in our unchanging God are the comforts that sustain us!
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).