January 27, 2003
CYBERCOLUMN:
Momma bird's love
___By Donna Van Cleve
___The huge tractor rumbled into the big field to get it ready for cultivation. Rick Beights lowered the eight-row cultivator and started the tractor forward, the blades cutting, lifting and turning over the red soil on the West Texas cotton farm. The long workday started at daylight and went 'til dark. Rick's Uncle Jim, visiting from South Texas for a few days, rode shotgun in order to visit with him.
___ After awhile, Rick stopped the tractor and pointed to some movement in front of a sunflower bush ahead. It was common for small animals and birds to build nests during the dormant time of the fields, and tractors usually took their indiscriminant toll on these ill-placed homes. Standing in front of the bush, a tiny killdee had placed herself in harm's way in front of the tractor to protect a nest holding her baby. The little bird had fluffed herself up to look as intimidating as her four-ounce body could, and even charged several times at the 12,000-pound tractor. Rick and Jim looked at each other and commented on the bravery of this little momma-bird as Rick put the tractor in gear …
Donna Van Cleve
___That little mama bird was acting on instinct to protect her young, but human mothers act on love. Most mothers would willingly lay down their own lives for their children. When I had my first child, I was almost overwhelmed at this new kind of love I felt for my newborn son, and later, baby daughter. The feeling was so powerful it almost hurt. Becoming a mother also made me realize the great love my parents had and have for my siblings and me.
___But somewhere along the way these past 30 years, we have allowed this powerful love mothers have for their offspring to be diminished and even destroyed in our society. The decision for millions of humans' continued existence or not after conception has been determined by factors that have nothing to do with the natural love for a baby, but rather self-love of the parents, primarily the mother. Inconvenience, poor timing, wrong gender, a chance of imperfect health, even embarrassment and saving face are the some of the considerations for ending a pregnancy. A pregnancy is not a wart or a tumor to be removed from a mother's body. A pregnancy is a precious human life.
___ Several years ago, I heard a young woman refer to herself and all the young people who were born since Jan. 22, 1973, as survivors. We are so shocked when we see and hear about the atrocities of the Holocaust that were being committed legally by Germany in World War II, and yet our society is even boastful of our civil rights and the legality of the holocaust that has been committed here in our country for many more years than the Jewish Holocaust lasted. There were German citizens who disagreed with what was going on, but their silence allowed it to continue.
___ When folks say that it's not the same thing to compare those two lethal realities, have each of us considered the fact that we all were fetuses at one time? That choice could very well have ended our own lives. What makes our lives more valuable than those whose lives were terminated by their mothers' conscious choice early in their existence? Why are we so shocked to hear about a teenage mother giving birth and abandoning an unwanted baby in a bathroom stall? The procrastinator goes to jail for discarding a life. The woman who met a deadline for ending her pregnancy is vindicated in discarding a life.
___ The very act of ending a pregnancy acknowledges the fact that something had begun, and that something was human life. Our country has blindly been going through a form of ethics cleansing these past 30 years, and based on statistics and media reports, we have been highly successful.
___ Our eyes need to be opened to the tragedy of abortion, but as heartbreaking as it is, abortion is not the unforgivable sin. And for every mother (and/or father) who chose the abortion option and is now suffering from the pain of guilt and the loss of that child, our Abba Father awaits with open arms of forgiveness and the healing balm of his grace and unconditional love.
___ The tractor finished its job, but if you were to look carefully at the plowed rows that day, you would notice a flaw in the middle of the field. A patch of grass and weeds surrounded a sunflower bush standing intact—the bush that shaded the mother killdee and her baby. It would have been more timely, convenient, or even neater during the long and hard workday to plow straight through instead of stopping the huge tractor and making a 90-degree turn to avoid the brave little bird. But compassion won out in the heart of someone who had the choice and the chance to destroy life, but took the time and made the effort to allow it to live.
___ Donna Van Cleve is a writer and wife of one, mother of two, and grandmother of Audrie, and is a new member of Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin.
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook
