A few days ago, I left the girls and babes home with Chappy and took Caleb to get a hair cut. While he went in to Great Clips, I remained in the car for some alone time with a book. A beautiful day with a cool breeze, I rolled my windows down, curled my feet up under me, and began to read.
"Are you serious?" came a very loud man's voice. Startled by the booming sound, I jerked up and looked around to find a man standing near the front side of my car.
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"Hi, how are you?" I asked, not knowing what he was talking about and not thinking about the magnetic signs posted to my van doors.
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"Are you serious....are 92% of all babies with Down Syndrome aborted every year?" he repeated.
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I closed my book, sat up straight and answered: "Actually, sir, the rate has increased. Due to earlier genetic testing among pregnant women, the percentage is now 94%."
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"I just can't believe that. People who have Down Syndrome are like angels....they are so loving and kind. It is a shame, I tell you, this is a real shame".... he replied to me while looking closely at Hopey's picture on the car magnet. His voice cracked when he spoke and I quickly noted his sincere concern.
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He shook his head and walked away to join his wife in the parked car waiting for him, and they drove away.
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Ironically, when the stranger approached my car, I was finishing the book: "Lord of the Flies". Caleb's English class is reading it, and since I have never read the book, I decided to read along with his class so I could discuss the book with Caleb.
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"Lord of the Flies" is a brutal book about young boys who are stranded on an island during a great war. At first, they are excited about the adventure a deserted island might afford them; however over time, the majority of the boys become savage-like and do unspeakable harm to one another. The author, through his intricate work of fiction, powerfully shows the debase character of all men....sin nature in it's purest, animalistic form.
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I fell in love with the character, Piggy, in the book. Perfectly imperfect, Piggy is a bit overweight, cannot see without his glasses, and frequently wrestles with asthma. He is murdered in the book---a group of boys hate him because of his weaknesses---and so they kill him. I cried when Piggy died. It is only a book, I know, but I cried.
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94% of all babies with Down Syndrome are aborted in the United States every year.
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Approximately 60,000 unborn babies a year are murdered simply because they are not perfect.
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I also cry as I type those statistics. Unlike a fictional tale about an imperfect boy named Piggy, the statistics represent real flesh and blood. Life. Little Hopes and Little Charlies.
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"Oh yes, you shaped me first inside; then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, Oh God---You're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration---what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before You, the days of my life all prepared before I had even lived one day."
Psalm 139 (The Message)
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