“Is our couch sinful?” I asked my daughters as we discussed the issue of abortion during a family devotion. “No,” my youngest said, “unless it grows arms and starts to punch us!” 

The more I think about her goofy comment, the more I see the logic behind it. She knows instinctively that things (couches, chairs, pillows) are not sinful because they are not people. But if those things were more like people (with arms that could punch you!), then sinful might be the right word to describe them.

What does all this have to do with abortion? Back in Psalm 51, King David wrote, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (verse 5). David confessed that he was sinful from the moment of his conception. If only people are sinful, as opposed to things like couches (or clumps of cells), then God is telling us a massive truth that must shape our views of the womb. God is declaring that human life begins at conception.

If that passage wasn’t enough proof, consider the unique DNA formed once a sperm fertilizes an egg. Unlike the mother’s cells around it, that zygote has its own genetic code. Perhaps God was winking at us, reminding us when created life truly begins.

So what does this mean for us? For those of us who have had or have encouraged an abortion? I hope and pray that you come back tomorrow for God’s answer to that question.