A Christmas Miracle
By Dan Gura

Pro-life prayer warriors outside the Albany Medical Clinic in Chicago last year witnessed a Christmas miracle, according to Dan Gura.  OPINION - Have you ever been so close to a miracle that you could feel the presence of God?
           
On December 18th, the Pro-Life Action League began their 2nd annual "Empty Manger" Abortion Mill Caroling Day in front of Planned Parenthood's headquarters and concluded three mills later at one of the busiest abortuaries in the City of Chicago, Albany Medical Surgical Center.
           
Abortion mills are places of despair where the murder of innocents does not stop during Advent. Abortionists show no respect for the sanctity of the womb or for the season; business was booming on that unseasonably warm winter day.
           
Yet, miracles do happen--and a week before Christmas, one did in this most evil of places.
           
While Eric Scheidler led two score of Christmas carolers "mak(ing) a joyful noise unto the Lord" (Psalm 98:5) the Holy Spirit was inside softening a mother's heart.
           
While we gathered on the windswept sidewalk witnessing in song to the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a mother, who was inside prepared to end the life of her pre-born child, was being filled with the saving power of His grace.
           
While we stood singing "Away In A Manger" and "Silent Night" in front of the abortion mill, a mother was sitting in the waiting room feeling her child moving inside her.
           
This was the "choice" which she had come to remove, yet now she had doubts.
           
Was it the haunting melody of "What Child Is This?" that made the mother realize the babe in her womb was so afraid of her "choice"? Or was it the empty manger around which we gathered that had opened her eyes?
           
It matters not because our humble voices were used as an instrument of His hand; together they rose in harmony to heaven itself.
           
There is an old saying that, "When you sing, you pray twice." On that day, our many prayers were answered.
           
Kathy Meiding, who sidewalk counsels every Saturday at Albany, watched helplessly from the alley as the couple drove by her into the parking lot. They exited their car and responded to her offer of a rosary "with a barrage of the f-word. The man then hustled the woman inside."
           
"They were inside for about fifteen minutes when the mother walked out and just stood there. She was silent but looked very upset." Kathy rushed over and offered to help her. "The woman said she could hear the singing inside and started thinking about the Virgin Mary and couldn't go through with it."
           
Kathy escorted the woman around the corner to Women's Center, a crisis pregnancy center for women, where they prayed together for her unborn child.
           
Corrina Gura, president of Augustana College Right to Life summed it up, "We all had other places to be--shopping, sleeping in, or decorating our houses--but there is nothing more rewarding then publicly testifying to our love of God and the birth of the Christ Child at the saddest place on earth.  The way He answered our prayers, it was amazing. It was a miracle."
           
A wave of elation swelled through the choir as we learned of the Christmas miracle which had taken place, behind a barbed wire topped fence, but within earshot of our joyful noise.
           
This Christmas season, please remember the Women's Center, and the volunteers who make miracle happen there every day, in your prayers.
           
Dan Gura and his family live in Illinois.  This article first appear on Thursday December 23, 2004 in the IllinoisLeader.com and is reprinted with permission.