The most costly Valentines’ Day card ever printed was printed in blood from the nail wounds in Jesus’ hands and feet. Nails didn’t hold Jesus to the cross – love did.
In pro-life adventure-romance Love’s Beating Heart, Dena’s Hispanic step-grandparents have just learned that their granddaughter ran away from home to protect her pregnant best friend Natasha from her parents’ demands that she get an abortion:
Julia nodded her head wisely. “Yes, it is just, m’ija. Just that you loved this young
man. You both thought you were old enough for adult love. You did not understand. Real
love, it means the wait for marriage.” She shook her head. “Not to worry, m’ija, Jesus
forgives you. You must forgive yourself. The baby inside you is because you loved too
much and too young. Yet, you have been wise. You make the right choice for Baby. God
will bless you for that. The unborn have no voice. They have no choice over what
happens to them. But you, m’ija. You have become the voice of your child. Of this, God
is joyful.”
Tears bubbled up in Nathasha’s eyes and dripped heavy crystals down her
freckled cheeks. She whispered, “I don’t want anyone else to know! I’m too
ashamed. I just want to die!”
“M’ija,” Julia said gently, “to die you cannot do. Baby would die. You have made
a mistake and you are sorry. Jesus forgives. Since He has forgiven you, why do you not
forgive yourself? You think perhaps that you are bigger and better than God and have
sinned such a great sin that Jesus is not big enough or good enough to forgive?”
Tasha hid her face on Dena’s shoulder while Julia explained the girl’s plight to
Eino. He nodded thoughtfully at Natasha, “Julia is right. Listen to her, m’ija. She is very
wise, my wife, my viejita. What she says is right. You gave the boy you loved the gift of
your love. You were too young to understand the cost.
“You say you are ashamed. But our Jesus is greater than our shame. He has
forgiven. But to forgive yourself, that must you decide. To wrap the guilt around you and
hang on to it is to tell Jesus He is not strong enough, or good enough to forgive you. It is
like to tell Jesus that it did no good to die on the cross for you. And, now, you do the right
thing. Protecting this little one. This I very much believe.
“You loved too young and too fully. Our Jesus, He did not die for the
right we do. He died for the wrong. Now, m’ija, “if you won’t forgive yourself, what
more can Jesus do? Already, He has died for you. He has nothing left to give. To die
again, He cannot do. You must decide to forgive yourself. Listen to Grandma, my vieja.”
Like Natasha, we must choose whether to accept the Valentines’ card Jesus wrote with His blood, or to reject it. Nothing in our past is too big for Jesus to forgive.
I wrote Love’s Beating Heart to keep other women from making an irreversible decision – to get an abortion – that has the power to torment them with guilt for the rest of their lives. I know. As a teen who was repeatedly raped, I was forced to have two non-medically supervised backwoods abortions that nearly killed me. Daily, I live with the knowledge that two children that would have been born to me were murdered.
If you know someone facing a pregnancy decision, gift them with a copy of Love’s Beating Heart. Next to the Valentines’ Day card that Jesus wrote with his blood, Love’s Beating Heart may be one of the best love gifts they ever receive.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/307104
Stephanie Parker McKean 
Moving excerpt, Stephanie.