One psalm, two causes and two meanings

Saralee Howard remembers the woman who walked into the Shared Pregnancy Women’s Center in Lansing, Michigan, last year and asked for an ultrasound even though she was leaning toward an abortion.

Howard sat with her during the ultrasound, and together they listened to the fetal heartbeat. When the woman identified herself as Christian, Howard talked about “God valuing this precious unborn child made in his image.” The woman, with little money and two children, said she thought God would understand her decision.

As the woman stood to leave, Howard slipped her a Bible bookmarked to a prayer that sings of God’s prenatal involvement in the swelling rhythms of sacred poetry: “For it was you who formed my inward parts,” it read, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”