Posted on 06/19/2005 5:57:00 PM PDT by Coleus
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For almost three decades Calvin College professor Pete Tigchelaar (left) has had a three-month-old fetus, encased in plastic, that he uses in his human biology classes.
He's always thought of the tiny fetus as a good educational tool. But he's not thought of it as a lifesaver.
Last year, however, that changed when a student in one of his biology classes privately inquired if he still had it.
Intrigued Tigchelaar said that he did and invited the young woman to his office for further conversation. There he asked why she was interested. She proceeded to tell him an amazing story, one that he now is sharing more widely as Christmas draws closer.
The young woman told Tigchelaar that a generation earlier her mother had been a student in one of Tigchelaar's biology classes. Unknown to Tigchelaar this student was three months pregnant on a day he had shown the class the fetus with its tiny fingers, facial features, eyes, outline of a liver and other human features.
"She had already visited a pregnancy center," Tigchelaar recalls the young woman telling him, "and was told about the 'product of conception' and 'contents of the uterus' that she had within her. She was advised to have an abortion."
But after Tigchelaar's class she realized she had more within her than a "product of conception." And she put aside any thoughts of an abortion, continued with her pregnancy and eventually delivered a healthy baby girl.
"I am that girl," the student then informed a stunned Tigchelaar. "Thanks for my life."
Tigchelaar, at the time, was amazed, speechless. He remembers in a halting voice telling the girl simply that she was beautiful.
"Even now," he says, "I can barely tell the story without breaking up."
Yet tell it he is. And for an important reason.
"In this season when we celebrate the birth of someone who came to give each of us eternal life," Tigchelaar says, "I am reminded that the unwed Mary would have been the perfect candidate for a similar procedure. I am thankful that her response was, 'I am the Lord's handmaid. Be it to me as you say.'"
Powerful story. Thanks for posting it.
Well, I can hardly read it with dry eyes either.
I almost replied with a flippant remark; however, the story too powerfully illustrates the point that indeed, every day of our lives is a gift from GOD, we having done nothing really, to "earn," or, "deserve," another 24 hours.
Indeed, many unfortunate children have been denied the gift this young lady no doubt remains cognizant of throughout the year. Likewise, many of us who have been blessed with the gift of life often take it for granted...So as the first day of Summer draws closer, Merry Christmas!!
"and was told about the 'product of conception' and 'contents of the uterus'
Isn't it amazing that when we want to decieve others we first change the name to something else to draw attention away from the truth. It's too bad that so many millions haven't learned to see the truth and have murdered so many who couldn't protect themselves. They will never know the love they lost.
It's too bad so many people are so blind to the obvious.
You are such a brat Bump.
I know one reason I am so pro-life is because I saw un born babies in jars in a local nature museum when I was a little girl , and because my parents gave me books on human development.... I never understood how they could know what they knew, and be pro-abortion.
Even dissecting a cat in anatomy class was life affirming -finding tiny kittens in its uterus, no more than 3/4 of an inch long, and possessed of tiny claws, and fused eyelids, and little tails - so very beautiful they were, and how much more beautiful they would have been living and moving with blood flowing in their veins, floating in the amniotic fluid. How could anyone look at such a thing and not cherish early life?
I believe there would be a huge difference in this land if all children learned fetal development by the time they were nine or so.
Mrs VS
ping
Years ago, I was teaching high school chemistry and I had what I called my "pro-life bulletin board" in the classroom. The school administration made me take it down, but by then my students knew where I stood. One day this girl came to tell me about a "friend" who was pregnant and asking to learn more about early human development and abortion procedures. I gave her a lot of literature, then I was caught up in my fight with the school administration and forgot about it. In May I found out that it was my student who was pregnant, not a friend, and that after looking at the literature I gave her, she had decided to let her baby live. She was expelled from this private school. Months later I saw her at the Mall, with baby Christopher... You understand I had to cry my eyes out!!! Thank you, Lord, for using me to accomplish your purpose!
Great story...(I really like your name)
bttt
OUTSTANDING!
GODBLESS YOU RICHLY!
TOO MANY PEOPLE WHO CLAIM TO BE FOLLOWERS DO NOT FIGHT THE APOSTASY!
SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was always pro-life because I didn't think there was any other way to be -- but not really strongly so (this was before abortion was legal).
However, I was working at a hospital in medical records and pregnant with my first child. One of the lab assistants came to my office and dragged me and another young clerk around the corner to the morgue to "show us something".
There, on the lab table, lay a fetus, still floating in its sac, the product of a miscarriage, or natural abortion. I don't know how old it was, but it would have easily fit in my two hands, about the size of a large piece of liver. It was perfect in every visible, external appearance -- little nose, tiny fingers, toes, etc. It was absolutely beautiful. Prior to that experience I had always been taught that miscarriages happened because the baby was deformed in some way.
Suddenly this woman (who was rather coldand mean) picked it up and spun around with her hands outstreched to me. I nearly fainted and said, "Oh no, I don't want to HOLD it." She looked at me, disgustedly, and said, "I wasn't going to let you, I'm taking it over to the microscope."
Norma and I made our way back to our office and when our supervisor heard what happened, she was furious. (All of us in that office happened to be Catholic, but we never discussed such things because before Roe v.Wade there was no need to.) She put in a complaint to the Hospital Administrator, however, because she considered the lab assistant's actions an implied threat to me and the baby I was carrying.
I have never forgotten the experience, however, and it armed me well in the years to come when the left tried to fill our heads with the concept that a growing fetus was nothing but a lump of cells. The lab assistant's intentions were NOT honorable, but they had the opposite effect on me and made me even more strong in my pro-life views. I don't know how they affected Norma who was college help for he summer. She was from a Catholic women's College and not married yet. She was just stunned, I think.
If one believes the innocents go to heaven, could it be that even though life is considered a gift, the greater gift is eternal salvation and safety in the arms of God? Are those innocents (including the unborn) spared the opportunity to screw up the life portion of our existance?
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Great post.
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