LifeDate Fall 2026 – Preach Life
by Rev. Paul Clark, Lutherans For Life of Michigan
Not all lullabies are sweet and comforting.
One such “lullaby” sung in Spain, Portugal, and areas of Latin America warns naughty children that if they do not obey their parents and go to sleep, the Coco will come for them. The Coco is a shapeless, shadowy monster similar to the “boogeyman.” The legend of the Coco seems to have originated in the 17th century, in a “sweet” little poem by Juan Caxes, which, when translated into English, says:
Sleep, child, sleep or else …
Coco will come and eat you.
That’s not a very pleasant thought to have in your mind when you’re a child is tucked into bed, lights turned off, and the imagination begins to ignite. Not when every corner of the dark room holds its terrors, and you cannot begin to imagine having the courage to peer under the bed. That would be an ideal hiding place for the Coco.
Coco exists, but not as a fictional monster dredged up to terrify disobedient children and give them vivid nightmares. The Coco of our time is the monstrous plague of abortion. It is the culture of death that lurks not only in the shadowy corners of a darkened room, but in the open, flying its proud banners of “Reproductive Rights,” “Pro-Choice,” and “Women’s Health Care.” Like Coco, it comes to consume a child, a baby, a human being made in God’s image and one for whom Christ died. That is a very real nightmare indeed!
Coco exists, and not only in the monster that seeks to swallow up a baby in abortion. It has morphed into many other forms. As with abortion, it no longer just walks in darkness, stalking its next victim, but marches forth proudly into the light. It can take the gelatinous form of gender confusion and gender mutilation, leaving sometimes irreversible damage to a human body, a splendid and miraculous work of art, designed by our Creator God. It can take the form of depression and suicidal thoughts. Like a vampire, it can drain away, drop by precious drop, the energy, the will, and the courage to live day by day, until hope itself evaporates and nothing is left but the thought of death.
Coco exists, in many forms and many places, but there is only one sure way of driving it back into the diabolical darkness where it belongs.
“Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve’” (Matthew 4:10).
When dragged out into the true light of Jesus Christ, the culture of death in every form begins to ripple and fade. Its beastly manifestations must slink back into the dark corners, until such a time when they will be banished forever when the Son of Man comes again in glory.
For the light of Jesus Christ, shining forth from the words of Holy Scripture, clearly reveals that every life is sacred. Every human being is fearfully and wonderfully made. The unborn baby, the gender-confused teen, the man or woman contemplating suicide, the lonely old man in the nursing home, the woman surrounded by a thick cloud of depression, the cancer patient considering physician-assisted suicide—every one of these is one for whom our Lord Jesus died. Their sins have been paid for by the holy blood of Jesus. Each one of them—each one of us—no matter how great the cross and trial may be at the present time—has a future in Jesus that is bright with the promise of new life and eternal splendor. In the crucified and risen Christ, the chains are removed that kept us locked and burdened under the ominous cloud of eternal death. We have been declared righteous by faith in Christ. We spring forth in a new direction—one that leads to the promised land. As citizens of God’s kingdom, we are deployed on what may truly be called the walk of life.
So, be gone, Coco! Be gone, Satan! You have no power here when the mighty Word of God sounds forth in its awesome power and might!
Do you know what Satan cannot stand? He cannot stand it when we reach out to that young woman with compassion instead of indignation and judgment. He can’t stand it when we sit down with someone who is in the throes of severe depression and tell them that we care and that their life has meaning. He cannot stand it when instead of celebrating and glorifying sin, we apply God’s Law and Gospel to bring that sin into the light of Christ so that the tide of God’s healing and peace can flow.
Satan cannot stand it when—by Christ’s mercy, grace, and power—we embrace our identity and calling as God’s holy, chosen, baptized people, who, wearing the Armor of God, and bearing the Sword of the Spirit, unflinchingly take their place in the battle between good and evil—those who are not for death, but who are FOR LIFE.
Daily life may be a struggle. Our Lord never said it would not be. But remember, like baby Moses, we have been drawn out of the water and saved. In Holy Baptism, we have been united with our Lord in His death and resurrection. We belong to Him now. Body and soul—we are His. He has placed a barrier around us, one which Satan’s poison arrows cannot pierce.
Instead, they pierced Him. He took them all. Every arrow. Every drop of poison. All that we by our sins deserve, He received for us. Crucified for us, He absorbed those sins, your sins and my sins, and He buried them deeply into the grave, and when He rose in victory, those sins had vanished. LIFE triumphed! We are FREE—free to live in His name; free to walk in His ways; free to love and serve our neighbor; free to speak and fight on behalf of unborn children; free to find ways of showing compassion, that those who are depressed or contemplating suicide might know that their life has value; free to patiently counsel and assure someone with gender confusion that they have not been placed in the wrong body and to help them understand that the God who made them is the God who loves them and will help them through every trial.
When dreams turn into sighs, or even into cries, Jesus is there to help us, to hold us, to lead us forward.
The legend of Coco may only be a scare tactic for disobedient children, but this world is haunted by real monsters that seek to consume human lives, born and unborn. The questions are: Will we just ignore them and hope they go away, or will we confront them with the truth of God’s Word and the power of Christ as the light that dispels the darkness? Will we ignore the suffering of others, or will we show true compassion for those for whom our Lord gave His last breath?
We know the answer. We belong to Christ now. We have been saved by His blood. Marching onward by faith, we will speak for the speechless, stand for the persecuted, fight for the defenseless. We are FOR LIFE. We walk with the LORD OF LIFE. We walk under the banner of the WORD OF LIFE. And that is something that the Cocos of this world cannot overcome.
Carry on, fellow warriors, carry on with the WALK OF LIFE!
