Unseen
From time to time we see images that we just can’t shake. Some sights just haunt us for days, weeks, and sometimes even years. But what do you do with a sight that haunts you even though you have not seen it?
Such is the case with Unplanned, a movie I have not yet seen, but one that has shaken me nevertheless.
Unplanned is based on the experiences of Abby Johnson, one of the youngest Planned Parenthood clinic directors in the United States. In her position, Abby was involved in upwards of 22,000 abortions, primarily in a counseling capacity. A role that she felt fulfilment in.
But Abby’s world would be turned upside down. After years of defending a woman’s right to “choose” and dismissing the carnage as nothing more than a mass of unfeeling tissue, Abby would eventually see something she could never “unsee”.
Moving Pictures
For Abby, the day came when she was taken away from her desk and placed in the abortion room. When God took Abby from her desk, He moved her from the realm of fine sounding words and propaganda and placed her in front of stark reality. As she witnessed an abortion carried out on the ultrasound, Abby found her arguments reduced to mere rubble.
As difficult as it was to watch, there was no denying what was unfolding before her eyes. What she had so long dismissed as a “blob of unfeeling tissues” was anything but. Abby could see discernible arms and legs. She could see tiny little hands and tiny little feet. And then she witnessed these limbs being separated one by one by a vacuum placed into the uterus by the abortionist.
Graphic? Absolutely. But sometimes, like Abby, we need to be shaken to our core. The cost of ignorance and apathy are just too high to hide behind our “desks” and meaningless rhetoric. Like so many others, Abby was fed a lie and feasted on it until she believed it. It took the sight of an unborn baby trying to “swim” away from an abortion vacuum to open her eyes.
How long can we live in our lies?
Reality Check
Let’s be honest. We have all heard the statistics of abortions so often that perhaps we have become numb or calloused to them.
But God hasn’t.
There is no second chance for the 22,000 babies whose deaths Abby was associated with.
Ponder that for a moment.
Forty four thousand eyes will never witness a sunrise or a sunset. Nor will they ever see a rainbow.
Forty four thousand hands will never hold a teddy bear or a doll. Nor will they ever push a stroller or pull a wagon.
Forty four thousand feet will never leave footprints in the sand, nor will we ever hear their pitter patter coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.
Forty four thousand ears will never hear a bird sing or enjoy the sounds of music.
Twenty two thousand voices, silenced before any ear could ever hear them, will never whisper, “I love you.”
And these are just the deaths that Abby Johnson was personally associated with. And there are countless Abby Johnsons out there.
Pro Life
Abby Johnson not only counseled many women to have abortions, but she also “chose” to end a couple of her own pregnancies with death. When God opened Abby’s eyes to the reality of abortion Abby could do only one thing. Ask for God’s forgiveness. And she did.
But armed with the truth, Abby desired more than forgiveness, as precious as that was. She wanted to be used of God to open the eyes of others. Today, Abby is a top notch Pro Life speaker and activist. Often sharing her story with others who are contemplating an abortion or who are suffering the consequences associated with having had one.
That life inside of a womb is not just a mass of tissue. As Abby witnessed that day on the ultrasound, it is a baby Human Being with defined arms, legs, hands, and feet.
But even these don’t define the baby.
That baby in the womb is God’s creation. Wonderfully knitted together by Him for a purpose (Psalm 139:13).
There is nothing unplanned about that life in the womb.
Redemption
As important as the abortion issue is, Unplanned is about more than that single issue. It is about forgiveness. It is about redemption. Even while Abby Johnson was living in the spiritual darkness associated with her Planned Parenthood profession there were Believers praying for her spiritual eyes to be opened to the light of Truth.
And they were.
I am not trying to heap guilt on anyone who has had an abortion. We are all sinners in need of salvation. While there are many things we can learn from the experiences of Abby Johnson, perhaps the most important is that God can and will forgive anyone. We just need to humble ourselves in repentance and ask for it.
But we must realize, God’s forgiveness is only found in the Person of Jesus Christ.
When we are living in darkness, He is the Light of the Word. When we are enslaved to lies, He is the Truth that sets us free.
If you are still living in your sins, I pray that God would shake you to your core and open your eyes to the Truth, just as He did for Abby Johnson.
Blood
No one loves the unborn more than Jesus. He went to the cross and died for them. He shed His blood so that they might have eternal life. But Jesus not only died for the unborn.
He died for Abby Johnson.
He died for abortion doctors.
He died for you and me.
It doesn’t matter how much “blood” is on our hands, the blood of Christ was shed to wash us white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). As cruel and “shocking” as the cross and the crucifixion may have been, they were part of God’s infinite plan to “shake” us to our core.
The End
As time allows, I intend to see the movie Unplanned. I will go knowing that I will experience the full gamut of emotions.
I will weep for the aborted children. I will be angry at those who so callously take innocent lives. Certainly I will rejoice with those who have their spiritual eyes opened to the Truth. But most importantly I will be grateful to God for His grace.
I know when I leave the theater I will be unable to “unsee” the graphic sights intended to shake away my indifference. But that’s okay, because I know there is a bigger, infinite picture.
I believe that those tiny souls that were denied the joys of earth, are in the presence of their Creator and Savior. In the comfort and safety of Heaven they are basking in the love they were denied on earth.
To Jesus they are not a statistic. They are His children. Forever each one of them will look Jesus in the eye and say, “I love you.”
I can’t wait to see it.