As Christmas morning rapidly approaches, I must remind myself of the reason we celebrate this wonderful season.

As we all know, it isn’t about shopping, decorating, baking, and caroling. It isn’t about Santa Claus, elves, reindeer, and snowmen. It isn’t even about the charities we support during this season of giving.

Of course, those things all contribute to the Christmas spirit, but this holiday is about one thing and one thing alone – the birth of Jesus Christ. Everything else is secondary.

Without the coming of Jesus Christ – humbling Himself, joining us on earth as flesh and blood, manifesting first as a vulnerable baby in the womb – we would not have His teachings, His church, His death, and ultimately, His glorious resurrection that offers us eternal life.

Life. Full life. Eternal life. That’s what this time of year is truly about.

Now, I won’t repeat the intriguing, yet cliche comparison of Mary’s unexpected pregnancy to the decision abortion-minded women face nowadays. I feel that’s akin to comparing apples and oranges – the circumstances are familiar, but ultimately quite different considering who she is carrying and how she conceived.

But I will say that it’s hard for me to understand “pro-choice” Christians, especially in light of the Christmas story. Jesus wasn’t in Mary’s plan. She was young, unmarried, and facing a judgmental world, not unlike ours. But Jesus was in God’s plan for Mary. Similarly, God weaves every decision, every consequence, every life into His plan for us. God recognizes the fetus as a preborn child in countless verses, especially when the Gospels describe Mary’s pregnancy. Although well-meaning Christians may see the “pro-choice” position as “compassionate,” we know for a fact that abortion violently ends a baby’s life and harms the mother both short and long-term physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.

And with that, I hope that you’ll pray with me – today and every day – for the lost women who seek quick fixes with eternal consequences, for the precious and vulnerable lives in the womb, and for the warriors fighting for both in every field of work every single day.

From a precious babe, we have been saved, but thousands more babies need us to help save them.

Heavenly Father,

First and foremost, I thank you for sending your Son, Jesus, to live and die and rise again for us sinners. I thank You for allowing Him to come as a vulnerable baby, to live and grow amongst us, to witness temptation and reject it, and to understand what we experience here in this broken world. I thank You for the mediation He provides us and for the love You have for us – a constant, unfailing, unchanging, reliable, life-changing, and life-saving love that we can only accept by Your grace.

I thank You for the urging You’ve placed in our hearts to fight for the unborn and their mothers. We recognize that we cannot end this atrocity with laws alone, but by placing ourselves in every field of work and every area of life, making ourselves available to be guided by Your hands. I pray for the doctors, nurses, ultrasound technicians, center and clinic directors, counselors, lawyers, activists, lobbyists, lawmakers, judges, and every other Saint You’ve anointed to be involved in this important work. Important isn’t even a strong enough word.

We know how heartbreaking the tragedy of abortion is to You. We thank You for taking care of the little ones already lost, but found in Heaven. We pray that this atrocity would be stopped – and quickly – through softening hearts, changing minds, and establishing laws that see abortion as it is – unthinkable, unethical, and unbearable. Please help us reach women in crisis and show them there are other options – life-affirming options – that will make them proud and save them a tremendous amount of grief in a multitude of ways.

We pray for the mothers and fathers who’ve made the tragic mistake of ending their child’s life. We pray they’d find us, reach out to us, and seek the healing we have to offer so they may use their past for good going forward, making better decisions and encouraging other people to choose the life-affirming route. We pray for those working in the abortion industry – that You’d help them see the error of their ways and seek the help they need to abandon it and work by the Hippocratic Oath – to do no harm. May they be accepted by the pro-lifers around them with love, patience, and grace as You have gifted us in our sin time and time again. We ask that You’d continue to raise up the next generation with a passion for this mission, mobilizing them to get involved, to talk to their peers, and help change this broken world.

We thank You for all of the women who have called Options United – who have found compassionate help, real options, and honest information – services they needed to realize there’s more to an unplanned pregnancy than abortion. We thank You for the over 2,600 lives that have been saved through calls made to us over the past 10 years. We pray for many more calls and saves in the years to come.

Despite obstruction from big tech, we ask that You’d help us reach these women in crisis and that You’d open their ears and melt their hardened hearts to receive the information we provide, accept the referrals we give them, and truly desire a life-affirming option for both themselves and their baby. Please speak into their lives, urge their loved ones to provide the support they need, and give them peace in their life decision.

We thank You for the partnerships You’ve allowed us to create with pregnancy resource centers and clinics worldwide, as well as adoption organizations and post-abortion counselors. We humbly ask that You continue to use us all and expand our reach as we work together to save the precious little ones You love so dearly.

We thank You again for Your everlasting love, grace, and mercy, and for sending your Son Jesus who we remember this Christmas day.

Amen.

We’d love to hear your thoughts and prayers, too! Feel free to leave a comment below.