(As featured on the back cover of the Winter 2013-2014 issue of Evangel)

 

She was young and scared with nowhere to turn.

She was pregnant and alone with a lot to learn.

She’d been told, “It’s your right to choose,”

But they never told her what she would lose.

She walked in for the operation,

She walked out to self-condemnation.

It was only a fetus, she told herself, It wasn’t a baby;

That’s what they say, but maybe —

Maybe they’re wrong.

After she came to know God,

She knew for a fact the terrible thing she had done.

How could I have done it?  How can I go on?

She went from nowhere to turn,

To no turning back.

Oh to have learned this lesson

before the black mistake of her past.

How can God forgive me?

He can’t love a person like me.

I hate myself for my ignorance and cruelty.

Oh God, if You’re there, forgive me, forgive me!

She’d never heard God’s voice before,

But in that moment she heard it, soft and sure.

Child, I’m here, I forgive you, I love you.

My Son’s blood covers all your sins,

Your past-self is gone, now you’re a new you,

This is where your past ends and your future begins.

You’re dark night is over, embrace the new dawn.

Stop looking back, your sins are gone, they can’t come back,

You’re past is behind you there’s no turning back.

 

© Whitney L. Schwartz