Vietnam Veterans Memorial and how it relates to Abortion

Several years ago a pastor named Cameron at my church was preaching on Sanctity of Life Sunday and telling us about a mission trip that he took our youth on, to Washington, D. C. Two of my children were part of that trip. My daughter Necole who was in college at the time, went as a chaperone and my son Anthony went as one of the teens on the trip.

One day Pastor Cameron took them out to see some of the historical sites in D. C. They ended up at The Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

I don’t know if you have ever been there, I myself have only seen pictures online, but it is a massive black granite stone wall. At it’s tallest point it is just over 10 feet tall. At the shortest point it is 8 inches tall. Engraved into this shiny black stone is the name of all the soldiers who were killed in action or missing in action in Vietnam.

There are over 144 panels of stone and when a visitor looks upon the wall, his or her reflection can be seen simultaneously with the engraved names, which is meant to symbolically bring the past and present together.

Pastor Cameron told us how he watched the kids walk by the wall and how some of them stretched out their arms and their fingers would lightly brush over the names. Once they walked past the wall they turned around and looked back at it.

They talked about the 58,000 plus names that were on the wall...how each name represented a life... a set of parents.... a story....... everyone has a story. If you consider how many lives each one had influenced, it becomes overwhelming.

He then asked the kids how long the wall was and of course the kids said it was really long. He asked them how long the wall would be if it had 116,000 names on it? Someone said, “It would be twice as long.” He then asked them, “How long would it be if there were a million names on it?” Then he said, “Imagine if there were over 50 million names on it, then how long would it be?” One of the teens answered, “It would go for miles.”

Then Pastor Cameron said, “That is how many babies had been aborted in the U.S.”. As he looked at the kids faces he noticed that two of the kids were really quite and they looked really sad.... When he shared this story in church, before he even mentioned who the two kids were, I knew that they were mine............

At that very moment just like the wall.....God brought my past into my present and I was there in church flooded and overwhelmed by emotions........I have shared my testimony several times all ready and thought that I would never share it again, that I did what God had asked of me and I was done.

But this was a moment when God spoke so clearly to my heart and I was sure He wanted me to continue to share my testimony. Deep down, I really wanted God to ask me to do something easy......it is so emotionally hard for me to share my story. I do not feel qualified but I remind myself that God does not always call the qualified.....He qualifies the called.

It amazes me that God can use someone like me to share my brokenness for His Glory....God never let’s anything go to waste.....even the sin and shame in our past....the hurt we experience....He is able to use it to magnify His Glory and Grace in our lives.

I am so thankful for the many men and women who unselfishly served our country and gave their lives.
Every time my husband or I see a service man or women, we always make a point of going over and thanking them for their service to our country.
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In John 15:12-17 it reads:
12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants,a for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

I will never look at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial the same way again....It represents so many lives....so many stories....but to this day I can not get out of my head the vision of how long that wall would be and how many names would be on it. Right now according to http://www.numberofabortions.com/ there have been over 61 million abortions in the U.S. since Roe vs. Wade...for every baby lost there is a mom and a dad...so many lives, so many stories....too many.

God has an agenda, He is in control and we need to be busy doing all that He has called us to do. I pray for a day when this will end but in the meantime I will do what I can to help us get there, it is my hope that you will get involved and help to end this battle.