But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. 1 Samuel 1:15
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. Ecclesiastes 11:5
And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. Numbers 5:27
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Psalm 22:10
The wicked are estranged from the womb;
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
Who are these frozen children? Each one of them is a living child. And yet none of them have been granted earthly life. They are frozen in time at a time when they should still be growing in the womb. Children of the womb have not been given over to earthly life, they are in a realm mostly outside of earthly control. They are in a realm that is under completely control and authority of the Lord. As their Creator, they are under His care and providence. And yet we have pulled them out, frozen them, and left them. But the Lord has not.
As Christians we desire to save the weak, to help the helpless. But here we face a very hard trouble, a wolf in sheep's clothing. Because here we are being asked to take a one flesh union of another woman and another man into our wombs that have been set apart for the one flesh union between me and my husband. Or you and your husband. That alone is wicked. As the church would no more agree with a woman sleeping with another man or a man sleeping with another woman to conceive, we should no more agree with embryo adoption simply because the act of sex is removed.
To remove life and allow it to grow in a dish is idolatry. It is playing, pretending, to be God. Some would claim it is not possible to play God because only God can be God. It is true that only God can be God but it is also true that God gives people over to their wickedness and allows things to happen. Every day wicked people conceive. Babies are thrown away shortly after birth. Cain was allowed to kill Abel. These babies are being permitted to grow in a dish and killed. Just because it is happening does not mean it is God's will, it is simply that God has given us over to our sin.
Christian parents do good to desire the gifts of God. When the gifts of God do not come or they die in the womb over and over it is maddening. And so we look elsewhere in our desire to help other children. But are these children of someone else's womb ours to help? What, when they are adopted by well-meaning Christian parents, are we saying is most important? Their salvation, of course, is most important. But where does salvation come from? We know that the Holy Spirit creates faith when and where He pleases. We also know that babies in the womb can be granted faith without ever seeing the waters of Holy Baptism as proven in John the Baptist leaping in his mother's womb at the voice of the mother of his Lord. And so as Christian parents do we do good to take these children into our own wombs or do we do better to pray fervently for these children that the Lord would indeed be their care and grant them faith?
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls aroundlike a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. (1 Peter 5:8-9, ESV)We are being tempted into the devil's lair. This wolf in sheep's clothing is prowling on the Christian's desire to help the helpless and leading us into the snare. For every time we try to help we are not only taking into our bodies the union of another man and woman but then we face a completely different struggle. In a recent thawing of children two children were killed. It was not intentional, but it happened. The order to thaw these children killed them. They would certainly have died if left frozen, but still they were killed. Every time these children are thawed, many of them die.
Sin boldly? Not when that sin steps into the devil's lair and not only commits adultery and murder (intentional or not), but also enables more of these children to be removed and frozen. Frozen embryos have to be paid for. Some of the situations do not seem to enable more. Some poor couple has embryos frozen and finds out they cannot be implanted for one reason or another and seeks to have them adopted out so they do not die. These children are sacrificed on the altar of human desire. Their sin is on their children's lives. That they chose to do this to their children is abusive and wrong. And sadly, they are not ours to help. Our marriage vows bind us and these children are the Lord's.
As Christians we have been warned. We are bound to holy living and are commanded in all things to seek out holiness and righteousness. We have to fight. As an advocate and voice for these children I insist that we are being far more helpful to them to pray for them continuously and fervently and to fight feverishly for an end to ivf. We must realize that the Lord has not given these children to us. They are not ours, they are His. We have no right over them.
Some Christians try to compare embryo adoption to adoption of children who have already been granted an earthly life. There is no comparison to taking a child under one's roof who is in need of parents and asking a woman to take the fruit that is not hers into her womb that God has not given to her womb.
A friend of mine recently shared a story about her word being spoken to her children and one of her children coming in to make her case about why her sibling should still be punished. "Because Mama, this child did this and that and last time you said that this would happen" etc etc. My friend shared that she had to explain to her child that the most important thing is that you obey my word, not that you question and try to reason why something is OK. It is tempting to try and reason away the loopholes and let one seemingly good thing out-weigh the fact that we are disobeying God's Word. But we must stand firm and not give the devil and the world the tiniest hold on our souls.
I am choosing to turn off the comments to this post because this is not the place to debate. Read what I've written and go discuss it with your pastor. I am discussing it with mine as well as with other Christians. This is a very hard thing with lots of emotion tied to it and I do not deny that I am free from emotion. As a mother who has had three children of my own die this year the thought of being the hand that caused even one more death makes me want to vomit. I rejoice at the lives that are soon coming to the family that got me thinking on this and rejoice that indeed God can work good in any situation. I grieve for the children lost in the thawing and I pray Come Soon Lord Jesus!
