Today at 12:30 PT, a couple plans to abort their 20 week gestation daughter. The doctors told them a couple weeks ago she has a pretty serious heart defect. So they’re choosing to end her life in the hopes they will get pregnant with a healthy child instead.

If you know anything about abortion procedures, you know a 20 week baby is too big to be “discarded” humanely.

I’ve prayed long and hard that the Lord would change this couple’s minds. This morning, as I was in the shower, I told God I hope He doesn’t allow them to get pregnant again. As I was thinking this thought, I immediately felt the ugliness of it. I recognized it as not from the Lord in any way, it was purely my human way of thinking.

I rationalized that this couple doesn’t value life and have already proven they will choose to kill any baby that isn’t perfectly healthy. They don’t deserve a healthy child, and they can’t be trusted with another pregnancy, I thought to myself and to the Lord.

I knew I was wrong to think this way. Such a thought shows no grace whatsoever toward this couple. And Jesus is all about grace.

I felt God say, “What if I give them a healthy baby immediately after they abort this child, and what if that gift opens their eyes to how gracious and forgiving I truly am? Then will you still feel the way you feel now?”

“Well…no…” I replied, embarrassed of myself.

The Lord went on, “What if I show this couple grace even though they’ve aborted a child in the past, and they come to love me as a result?”

Yes, I thought, that is a response Jesus would have in this situation – grace.

No one gets saved because they “get what they deserve” or experience divine retribution. They get saved because the Lord continues to reach out in grace and mercy and love even when they know they don’t deserve it. They get saved when they experience a divine love they’ve never seen anywhere else.

That’s how it happened with me. The Lord showed me grace, and I responded in faith. Who am I to tell Him not to show grace to someone else – for any reason? Shameful.

Abortions are going to happen in this world. And they are going to break our hearts and the Lord’s heart. But He won’t allow that evil to be wasted. The best we can hope for is that He will use such atrocities for His glory, someway, somehow.

In the meantime, He commands us to love people with abortions in their pasts as ourselves because He knows that as we are conduits of His grace and love, people are drawn to Him. And that’s what matters most.