It’s one of the most familiar Christmas songs. Over two thousand years later, we sing of that "Silent Night" every December. The silence is beautifully symbolic – it points to the peace that Christ brought to man. Our Savior, dwelling among us. Jesus, born to bring us peace with God.
Just the thought of that holy night humbles us to silence as we reflect on God’s sacrificial plan to save us. We have nothing to add, not even one whisper can we contribute to our salvation.
But that night – out in the stable in Bethlehem – was likely not silent. The idea of the “little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes,” is likely erroneous.
How do we know?
Because we know that Jesus wept as a man, so we have every reason to believe He cried as a baby. After all, crying isn’t sinful - it’s a sign of humanity. A sign of life. Jesus came to live on the earth in human skin.
And so, that crying, that sound of life, was the sound Mary was likely overjoyed to hear. It meant her son was here, her son was alive.
It’s that same crying that mothers today eagerly long to hear in the delivery room. A crying baby brings relief – and joy.
So, it is with a newborn in the many nights that follow. The cries – audible and urgent, mean a lot of things – I’m hungry, I’m wet, I’m hurting; but at its base crying means, I’m alive – I’m a living, breathing baby.
For not all silence is holy; not all silence brings peace.
Sometimes silence is anything but peaceful. Sometimes, it’s harrowing, even loud. Especially when silence rests in spaces not meant to be silent.
Like the silence that is supposed to be filled with a baby’s cries.
So here in December, we find ourselves celebrating that first Christmas while we celebrate the end of a very tumultuous 2022.
[Click here to subscribe to Pregnancy Help News!]
And that is a call to celebrate all the cries that are here to be heard – all the cries that break the silence of the night.
We celebrate the lives that are here, their lives not shortened by the devastation of abortion. These not-so-silent-nights will turn into years, decades, and lifetimes of voices that are meant to be heard. Their voices will continue because they are alive.
We celebrate all the pregnant women who looked beyond their uncertainties and listened to the truth, even when it meant they had to strain to listen against the backdrop of urgent fears and angry voices that screamed a different narrative.
These moms allowed themselves to slow down and listen to truth. They allowed themselves to consider the worth of life, unplanned in human minds and yet still inherently valuable. And with that truth, they made a different choice. Today they are rewarded with not-so-silent nights.
We celebrate all the pregnancy centers that kept their doors open this year, despite real threats. We rejoice with the staff and volunteers who refused to be frightened into acquiescence. Instead, they chose to continue.
They continued with their minds set on life even in the midst of tangible danger.
They continued creating safe havens across the country so women, could find real help and real hope as they made life-or-death decisions. Through support and medical services, these centers helped moms envision, and choose a different future – not one with the silence of a missing voice, but one that included not-so-silent nights.
Tweet This: We celebrate all the pregnancy centers that kept their doors open this year-refusing to be frightened into acquiescence despite real threats
We celebrate all the donors in the pregnancy help world, who reached deep into their pockets and gave generously to moms and babies, often without even the hope of being thanked by the actual moms and babies their donations protected.
These donors weighed the cost of not giving and heard the deafening silence of lives cut short. Their response? They chose to give. Hundreds of thousands of babies have been saved, creating not-so-silent-nights - thanks to the open-handed giving of these donors.
We celebrate the hotline and network of physicians in the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) who devoted their time and professions to speaking truth and providing life-saving services to pregnant women. They willingly chose to stand in the gap with women who took the first of the two abortion pills and then decided they want their babies to live.
Undeterred by naysayers like Planned Parenthood and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the APRN provided medically safe progesterone to women who wanted a chance to save the lives of their babies.
To date, 4,000 lives are here because the abortion pill reversal worked. This network rejected the idea that, once the abortion process was started, moms were destined to endure silent nights. Thanks to the APRN, these moms and their babies found a different, not-so-silent, destiny.
As we think back over 2022, we know that every crying baby we hear is one that was not aborted.
We rejoice, understanding that in places where there are crying babies, there could be silence. Their voices could have been quieted before they even had a chance to lie in a crib, to nurse, to experience a wet diaper, to feel the cold, or to cry.
So now, as we set our minds on that first Christmas Eve 2000 years ago, we also recap 2022 and consider all the not-so-silent nights of this year. We stand in awe of that night that God came to earth in human form, bringing us peace. And we also celebrate God’s handiwork in creation, creating many not-so-silent nights as the cries of living babies fill the air.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network and Pregnancy Help News.