It was a typical Friday morning at Immanuel Lutheran School in East Dundee, Illinois. It was January, snowy, and cold—a normal day in the life of the school. Basketball season was in full swing, and the kids were wearing their Eagle team attire as it was tournament time. As principal, it was my responsibility to teach seventh grade confirmation on Friday mornings because it was the pastor’s day off.
The topic was sanctity of life. As a former science teacher, I love connecting science and God’s Word. I think I was the only person looking forward to the lesson that day—but that soon changed as I pulled out the fetal models—the babies.
Middle schoolers are fascinated by babies. Sometimes they are actively fascinated. Other times they try to be cool. Once the babies came out of the box, active fascination became the norm. As we talked about human development in the womb, we looked at organ development and the size of the developing baby. Soon each baby was in the hands of the kids—and they didn’t let go. Sometimes I think I could have been reciting the alphabet for all the attention I appeared to be receiving during the lesson, but truly they were listening—hanging on every word while passing the babies around and tenderly holding them. Some even reminded their classmates to “watch his head.” It was a wondrous thing to witness.
We talked about how much each student weighed at birth, how big they were, and what they looked like. Each student had a story to share. It was turning out to be a good lesson.
Whenever I introduced the topic of abortion, typically our kids are shocked and angry that any parent could think about such a thing. They are usually filled with outrage. This year we had a set of quadruplets in the class—three girls and a boy. The quads had shared their birth weights, and we compared their birth weights to the models, and we marveled at God’s goodness and the miracle of life.
Then it all changed in an instant. The boy of the quads raised his hand and said quietly that when his mom was carrying them, the doctors wanted to do selective reduction on them—and he was the baby targeted for this procedure. Noah is the biggest of the quads. He’s now a big and strong middle-school boy—popular and a good athlete. The outrage that followed his announcement raised the roof! These kids were angry! How could our Noah not be here? What was the doctor thinking? Middle-school outrage is something to behold. There is something grand about watching middle schoolers ramp up into a roll. The idea that one of their own might not have been there was an outrage to their moral code, and the outbursts that followed were intriguing: “Why would God allow this to happen?” “Why doesn’t God just stop this?” “Why do people have abortions?” “Don’t they understand?” So many questions to which we don’t always have answers.
What was clear that day was that God was active, alive, and working in the lives of these children. They went back to Scripture. They read David’s psalm (139) reminding us that we were known and knit before we were born. They reminded themselves and one another of God’s perfect plan for each of them. Jeremiah’s words reminding them of God’s plan for their lives gave them comfort—but didn’t calm their outrage.
As we talked, prayed, and contemplated, we were reminded of the words of Ezekiel and the “time” passage—a time to live. What does that mean for God’s people in today’s world? We don’t always have the answer to that question, but we do know that the youth learning in our Lutheran schools are both the present and the future. On that day, our future was secure. Our children stood For Life—especially the life present in the womb. Our future was also secure in that our God promises us the security of heaven. The children knew that and claimed that promise. These young people will be our leaders, workers, moms, and dads in the years to come.
This day they stood strong for God’s plan For Life—their own and that of life in the womb.
What a wondrous future it will be!