What Kind of Dog for Easter?

We don’t understand a world of suicide bombers and casual murders. Why does God allow it? For the same reason a dog owner gets to choose between a collie and a dachshund, or a Great Dane and a Scottie. God gives us freedom of choice. Murder is a matter of heart. God gives every individual the freedom to choose between good and evil.

It’s easy to rail against God when tragedies stalk our world. It’s easy to shake a fist at God over unanswered prayers; when someone we prayed for remains unhealed, when someone we love dies, when a fierce storm ruins our homes and possessions. It’s natural to blame God when He allows something bad to enter our lives. And, yet…if God intervened to the point of taking away our freedom of choice, how would we feel when we selected a golden retriever from the pet shelter and the manager said, “No, God put you down for a beagle.”

Jesus had unanswered prayers. On the night before He died, Jesus prayed three times and asked God, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me, nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done.”

Jesus didn’t want to suffer. He didn’t want to be tortured. He didn’t want to hang on the cross. He didn’t want to die. But His prayer to be spared agony went unanswered because His death on the cross for our sins was the only way the gates of Heaven could be opened wide enough for all of us to enter. Even after allowing His Son to die on the cross for our sins, God did not strip our freedom of choice. We can still get that golden retriever….or walk with evil as a companion and allow cruelty and murder to control our hearts.

When Jesus died on Good Friday it seemed like an unbearable sorrow and tragedy to His followers. The One who had opened blind eyes, healed the lame, cast out demons, turned water into wine, raised the dead, calmed the storm, and walked on water had died just like other people.

Easter Sunday proved what Jesus’ disciples did not know at the time: “All things work together to good to those who love the Lord.” (Romans 8:28) Jesus rose from the dead! Because He lives, we can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because He lives, we can follow Him to Heaven where there is no illness, death, sorrow, tears, or parting. Alive forever in new bodies singing praises because of Jesus’ power to transform the worst day in world history into the best.

Because Jesus lives, I can live forever. The choice is up to me. I’m going for the Man Who paints the seasons with brilliance and draws human hearts toward good. I’m going with God.

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Why I Chose Child Abuse over Abortion

I didn’t say to someone when I was in my mother’s womb, “I know if I’m born I’ll get abused – I choose abuse over abortion.” I didn’t say that because unborn children can’t speak for themselves.

Had I known every heartbreak in my life before I was born, I would still have chosen life over abortion.

Let’s pretend a moderator had interviewed me in the womb.

Moderator: “If you are born, you will face years of sexual abuse from your father. He will start raping you when you are eleven. He will get you pregnant twice, then heat up your mother’s knitting needles and perform two backwoods, medically unsupervised abortions to hide his crime. You will nearly die both times and it will take you weeks to recover. You will miss a lot of school and fail math. He will beat you up, stomp on you, throw things at you and threaten to kill you if you tell anyone. You can avoid all that by being aborted now.”

Me: “There will be some good days and good times. I want to live.”

Moderator: “It won’t be easy even when you escape abuse. You’ll be homeless with no money. You will live under a bridge in the back of a truck. Even on the coldest days of winter, you will wash yourself and your clothes in the river. You will be miserable.”

Me: “I will find ways to cope and become a stronger person because of hardship. I want to live.”

Moderator: “You will have a son. You will spend more than seven years as a single parent, working two and three jobs to make ends meet. One time you’ll be so tired after working all night, getting your son off to school, then going back to work at 11:30 a.m., that you drive your truck to a shopping center parking lot, let your son go visit the toy shop, lock the doors and sleep in the cab in freezing weather. You hate being cold.”

Me: “I want to live.”

Moderator: “You will be heartbroken because your son is chronically ill and doctors don’t know what’s wrong. Seeking medical help, you will drive over Donner Summit in the winter in a truck with no defroster. As you drive over the mountain, you will be constantly scraping ice off the outside, then the inside of the windshield so you can see. The truck will break down and you will be two years without your own transportation.”

Me: “I will love my son. I want to live.”

Moderator: “You will want to be a writer. You will spend 40 years sending out manuscripts and getting rejections back. Working two and three jobs at a time, you won’t have opportunity to research the market. Many times, you won’t have enough money for postage to send out your books. You will get so frustrated that you feel like slamming your head against a concrete wall.”

Me: “I want to live.”

Moderator: “More tragedies. All on the same day, your mother dies and you can’t plan to attend her funeral because your husband is sent home from the hospital to die; your sheepdog dies, and your truck catches on fire in downtown San Antonio.”

Me: “I want to live.”

Moderator: “You will get scammed out of your property by a drug-addicted con, and a pastor you trusted. You will live in an open-ended garden center with no indoor plumbing and no kitchen or bathroom facilities. You will take cold water showers with the garden hose. In the winter, you will put up hay bales and wrap up your little living area in plastic to keep out the cold – it’s all you can afford. Wildlife will share the garden center with you – even wasps and scorpions. You will eat one meal a day and survive on granola bars the rest of the time. The legal system will fail you, and you will be broke and homeless again.”

Me: “I want to live. I might be broke, I might be homeless – but I will never be poor.”

Because I lived, I taught in Christian schools in two different states and remain in contact with some of my former students who claim I had a positive influence in their lives.

Because I lived, I worked on newspapers in three different states, writing stories that uplifted and helped others.

Because I lived, I was honored by God with the most awesomely wonderful son any mother could ever have, the late Marine Corps Major Luke Gaines Parker. Even after his Nov. 17, 2013 plane crash, Luke continues to bless others with the writing, memories, and Christian example he left behind. Because Luke lived, he leaves behind daughter Dulcinea, who makes the world a better place. All that was possible because – first of all – I lived.

Because I lived, I am now married to a marvelous husband, Reverend Alan T McKean, the author of time travel-adventure books The Scent of Time, The Scent of Home and the soon-to-be-released The Scent of Eternity. Because I lived, we live in the lovely Black Isle of Scotland, working together in his ministry.

Because I was abused, not aborted, I have written six “inspirational,” “life-changing” books, which include the pro-life adventure-romance, Love’s Beating Heart – a book which readers say helped them choose life and adoption for their unborn instead of abortion.

Child abuse is unforgivable. It should never happen. Abortion is ultimate child abuse – it tortures the child, then murders him or her.

What about you? Life hasn’t been easy. Would you have chosen abortion over life?

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