by Katie Schuermann
While our hearts grieved at not being given the gift of children by God, our consciences were burdened at the thought of manufacturing children for ourselves. To utilize IVF would be taking matters into our own hands, quite literally. We would be trying to promote ourselves from mere creatures to creators of life, and such an action stank heavily of mutiny against the Creator.
All we needed to consider was the harm that came to the world from Adam and Eve’s own self-promoting in order to be convinced of the wisdom in waiting on the Lord for all good things, even children.
And in waiting on the Lord in this particular matter, we knew that He would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), even if He never gave us children.
Put another way, our unimaginable pain would be met by His unimaginable comfort, always.
If your conscience is burdened because you used IVF, know that you are not alone in your regrets. The apostle Paul teaches us in his letter to the Romans that “none is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). He also writes that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Please, talk to your pastor or a trusted Christian friend about your regrets, and put your faith in Jesus’ words from the cross about His work of salvation on our behalf: “It is finished” (John 19:30). Because of Christ’s mercy, we can live our lives looking backward in repentance yet forward in hope.
