There are no unplanned pregnancies

Yesterday was Mother’s Day 2005, and I preached a message on three women in the beginning of the gospel of Luke—Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna. While I was preparing for the message; though, God helped me to understand something that I had never really seen before. There are no unplanned pregnancies.

This was a profound thought to me, but consider with me why I can make such a claim based on the teaching of the Bible.

1. Elizabeth, and many other women in the Bible were barren until it was God’s time to give them a very special child (Luke 1:5-25)
2. The Bible teaches us that God is ultimately behind everything that happens.

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 19:21

1. The Savior of the World came into being as an unexpected pregnancy.

We can so often think of the events of this world as if they are all up to the whims of human beings. Even Christians and other religious people can easily forget that there is another will at work in this world. It is God’s will, and his will is ultimately what will happen.

Now of course, there are always the questions of “Why do bad things happen to good people?” and I’ll address that in more detail at another time, but one question we can address is this: if God is always in control, and if God’s plans are the ones that always succeed, then from God’s perspective, there are no unplanned pregnancies, so what about…. (fill in the blank with your own “unplanned” pregnancy idea).

God has a plan for every baby.

I know there are many times when a woman gets pregnant without actually planning to be pregnant, but that doesn’t make the baby unplanned. I believe that God has a plan for every single baby. Here are my reasons:

I have 2 parents. I have 4 grandparents. I have 8 great-grandparents. I have 16 great-great-grandparents. They have 32 parents. They have 64 parents. They have 128 parents. They have 256! If I consider only the past 20 generations of my family tree, I have over two million total parents! Here’s my point. Out of two million parents, I am certain that at least one of those pregnancies was “unexpected” by the parents involved. And yet, the Bible tells me that God has a purpose for my life. Therefore, if God has a purpose for my life, then God had a plan to bring that particular baby into the world at that particular time so that someday, he could work out his purpose for me!

If I believe that I have a purpose and that God has a plan for my life, then I must believe that every single pregnancy in my family tree was planned by God.

Additionally, I’m a white man descended from European blood, and back in the middle ages, there was a great deal of warfare and barbarism going on in Europe. In fact, I can almost guarantee that one of my moms in my family tree got pregnant with a child as the result of an abusive situation or perhaps even a rape.

What does all this mean? Biblically, every child has a purpose and no child is unplanned—consider that the Savior of the world chose to be born as an unexpected pregnancy! Practically, I have a purpose for my being here, but I don’t have the right to claim that any other child doesn’t.

But what about…

Let me cut to the chase. Let’s deal with some terrible examples.

You tell me about any pregnancy. I know there are some “trouble” issues when it comes to issues of abortion, so let’s consider the worst possible situations a mom could be placed in.

• A woman is raped and becomes pregnant.
• A woman becomes pregnant and the baby is threatening the mother’s life.
• A woman is pregnant and the doctors have determined that the baby has severe deformities that will diminish that child’s “quality of life” severely.

I claim that in each case, God can still have a purpose and a plan for that baby.

• Perhaps the baby is in the womb of the raped woman because God wants to give her something beautiful out of the tragedy.
• Perhaps God wants to teach someone about the beauty of forgiveness.
• Perhaps God wants to teach someone about unconditional love.
• Perhaps God allows for an ectopic pregnancy today to prevent ovarian cancer in the future.

Now, I believe that there are some biblical grounds for terminating a pregnancy in the rare case of a mom’s life being severely threatened as in an ectopic pregnancy, but in every other case, I think it’s time for us to realize that there are no unplanned pregnancies, and we should let God’s plan work itself out until it becomes clear what it was or we can ask him ourselves face to face.

Never forget Jesus

More than anything, our God is a God who turns terrible evil into glorious good. After all, he is the one that brought forgiveness to the world through the tragic and evil crucifixion of Jesus.

The next time you encounter a situation that seems evil to you, ask God to give you patience and wisdom to someday see the good he will bring out of it.

The next time you encounter a woman who is debating abortion, encourage her to trust in a God who has a plan for her and for her unborn baby.

Nothing surprises him.