December: Our Savior Comes to Heal

The month of December is a time when Christians observe the season of Advent and cry out, along with Scripture, "Come Lord Jesus!" The theme for December, therefore, is the coming of Jesus, to heal all the Shockwaves of Abortion. After eleven months of the Shockwaves initiative, and after the churches, the pro-life movement, and hopefully the nation have gained a much greater awareness of the multifaceted wounds of abortion, they will (and should) feel overwhelmed and more in need of help and salvation than ever before. This felt need for the Savior, for the Healer, leads the heart and mind to cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus!"

That cry, the theme for December, expresses not only the need but also the hope: we have the certainty that there is One who can heal us. He has come to earth, and will come again, "with healing in his wings." Between his first and second comings, he comes in multiple ways through grace, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, and through the multiple healing programs which those who have been made aware of their wounds are urged to embrace.

We therefore end the year in December with a nationwide call to heal our nation much like we began in January.

The importance of this December theme reveals a key aspect and imperative of the entire Shockwaves initiative: to raise awareness of a wound requires developing resources to treat it. When one becomes aware of how wounded he or she is -- in any of the groups that the initiative focuses on month after month -- there is a fork in the road, a "crisis" in the classic sense of the word. At that point, one can either sink into despair, unconvinced that any healing is possible, or one can stand up, slowly and painfully, and with determination decide to begin the journey of healing.

When one decides to do the hard work necessary to heal, there is another fork in the road. One might think that this healing is just a human achievement: brute strength of will-power, or the power of the psychological sciences. Certainly we do need to utilize these human, natural elements. But it would be a fatal mistake to trust only in human beings, including ourselves, for healing. The proper road for the healing journey is marked by the awareness that we cannot do it without God and his grace. This leads to the cry of faith, "Come, Lord Jesus!"