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Articles Jan. - Feb. 2001 article from Immaculata magazine "God Brings All Things Together For the Good" "Another beautiful day in Hawaii!" My Dad would greet us each day with these same words, no matter the forcast. In Hawaii most days were tropical and carefree, but there were those days when the lightning struck and the waves crashed. Dad is an optimist, though, and has always tried to bring good out of difficult situations. This was just one of those times. It was 1970, and we lived in a beautiful home on Maui, overlooking the ocean. You could call it paradise. Palm trees dotted our back yard and a short trail led to the warm ocean sand. My days as a toddler were spent jumping out of my diapers, eating sand and gazing on as my older brothers designed their own surf boards and tackled the waves of the Pacific. It was another beautiful day in Hawaii. Then came the news flash: "Hawaii becomes the first state to legalize abortion." Couples steal away to Vegas for quick legal marriages, but who could have imagined how many desperate women would travel to this island paradise to obtain legal abortions. Innocent children would be murdered in the sanctuary of their mother's womb! Dad watched the broadcast in horror, but was already devising a way to provide a solution in this paradise lost. He decided to post ads in the paper encouraging women who had come to Hawaii seeking abortions, to consider spending nine months in the Islands, carrying their babies to term. Who could turn down nine months on Maui? Initially our home was opened up to welcome these young women, many who simply needed guidance during a very confusing time in their lives. It wasn't long, however, before our "extended family" outgrew our Maui home. Then our whole clan moved to Oahu where the Sacred Heart Sisters donated a large house that would be called "home" to still more women and their unborn children. There were hormones bouncing off the walls, crazy boyfriends calling, angry parents, homesick girls, and morning sickness, but for my Dad it was always, "Another beautiful day in Hawaii." That's what fathers do best: bring good out of difficult situations. I believe that God the Father is very much the same way. He knows how to bring all things together for the good. Even as we do our best to self-destruct, he still devises a way to provide a solution. A few years ago, I was staffing a teen retreat. During the quiet time provided to prepare for Confession, a seventeen-year-old girl came up behind me, grabbed me by the sleeve and pulled me off to the side. She kept her head low, her long dark hair covering her face. I asked her what I could do to help. She buried her face in her hands and began to shake, crying inconsolably. I could barely make out what she was trying to say, she was sobbing so deeply. She was finally able to spill out that she'd had an abortion and was never able to tell anyone except her boyfriend. She went on to say that she was too afraid to talk to the priest about it, but was so overwhelmed that she felt she needed to confide in someone. I can hardly describe the heavy emotions that passed through my heart as I heard this young woman's story. I listened, sensing that nothing I could possibly say would suffice. Only God's grace and his unconditional love would be enough to bring her to a process of healing. So I gently helped her to understand that only "the truth can set you free" and that Jesus was waiting for her with open arms. After a long chat on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, she stood up, grabbed the box of Kleenex I had gotten her and made her way to the confessional. The events of that day really made me think long and hard about a lot of things: about the value of life, about the choices we make and, most important, about God's love and how he is able to bring good even out of terrible situations. My thoughts went to another teenage girl who discovered she was pregnant. The waves were crashing in around her and she was in turmoil as to what to do. To have a baby now would alter the entire course of her young life. The option to abort was available. Instead, my birth mother carried me to term and, at four days old, I was adopted into the family I have today. But why? Why did God preserve me from the scalpel and not the millions of other "unplanned" pregnancies that have ended in abortion? Would the world be any different without me? Is the world any BETTER for having me in it? Could it be that God has a plan? Let me ask you this: If I had not survived the womb, who would have been there to console that young girl and help prepare her for Confession? Perhaps the sole purpose for my existence was so that God could have an instrument of His mercy at just the right place, at just the right time. God has a plan all right—for me and for YOU. And while we may not understand it all this side of the grave, there is a master plan unfolding at every moment of every day. And EVERY created person plays a part in that plan, those living and those not living. Those who grow to full stature and even those who are aborted in the womb. From God's vantage point, there is no such thing as an "unwanted" pregnancy. Why? I believe that God is present at the moment of every human conception, no matter what the circumstances surrounding it. Each human person is created in God's image and likeness. People "make love," but only God makes people. And while I believe that our choices have a serious impact on the course of history, good and bad, I also believe that God brings all things together for the good (Rom 8:28). |
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