It must have been about 40 years ago when I had lunch with a casual friend of mine, whose name I can’t even remember because it was so long ago. I guess I had accepted Christ as my Savior about five years before our lunch date, while my friend had been a believer for about ten to twelve years already.
After we engaged in some Christian small talk, my friend and I began to discuss his young daughter, Grace. My friend shared that Grace, who was at the time of our conversation, about eight years old, was born with severe mental and physical handicaps. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t walk, and was mentally impaired from birth. Yet, despite these handicaps, she always radiated a wonderful smile to all she came in contact with. My friend also shared that she always enjoyed being in church and that their church had embraced little Grace with a great deal of warmth and Christian love. She was an important part of the church family and despite her physical and mental issues, she always was a great source of encouragement to everyone around her.
But there was a backstory to Grace’s birth that I was about to learn that has left a profound impact on my life, even these forty years later. You see, my friend shared, about seven or eight years before Grace was born, my friend and is then girlfriend, who weren’t Christians at that time, decided that when she became pregnant that they weren’t ready for a child and opted for an abortion.
About a year later, both my friend and his girlfriend attended a church service and both gave their hearts to Jesus. Fast forward a few years later, after they got married, his wife became pregnant again. About three months into the pregnancy, they discovered that there was a very good chance that the baby would be born severely deformed. The doctor recommended an abortion. This time, however, my friend and his wife, told the doctor that they were Christians and believed that all human life was sacred and that abortion was not an option. While their doctor warned them of the grace consequences that they could be in store for, they insisted that they would pray for a healthy baby and leave the outcome with the Lord.
Well, six month later, and after a lot of prayers by my friend and his wife and their entire church family, the Lord decided to allow the doctor’s prognosis to come true and baby Grace was born severely handicapped. After a lot of crying my friend and his wife decided that they served a good God and that if He chose not to answer their prayers He must have a special blessing that He would work through baby Grace.
After reflecting on this entire true story what really impressed me was how God had used baby Grace to be such a powerful positive influence in my friend’s church family over her eight years of life and something even more powerful. You see the first time my friend’s girlfriend got pregnant they opted for an abortion of what most probably would have been a perfectly healthy baby. But in the second pregnancy, they knew there was a very strong possibility of a deformed baby, yet because they were Christians chose to keep the baby regardless of the outcome, since they now believed all life is sacred.
While God chose not to answer my friend and his wife’s prayer as they wanted, He still blessed them with a special child who has blessed so many through her smile and her story of how she made her way into the world. In addition, being Christians made all the difference in the lives of my friend and his wife by allowing baby Grace to live.
The irony is that a perfectly healthy baby was murdered in the womb, by two souls that didn’t value life. And yet, a severely deformed baby was allowed to live because these same two souls were touched with the life transforming power of Christ. And as a result they came to understand that all life is considered sacred and made in the image of God and deserves the right to live.
It’s forty years after sitting with my friend, discussing the story of baby Grace, and I still remember how Christ is able to change the way a person views and values life. I praise God for baby Grace and just know, despite her handicaps, that God was able to use her to bring glory to His name!