Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

What’s In a Name?

So much
of “Entering Canaan” has been a miracle to me. I feel like a bystander who God
has richly blessed to reveal His desire for this ministry. So much of its
inception flowed from His grace, and although The Sisters and I brought it materially
into being, it was truly born of His Spirit.

Perhaps
one of the biggest evidences of His grace was in naming the ministry. We had
been asked to write a manual for the post abortive work we were doing, but we
had no name for it, so we began to pray for God to reveal to us what it was He
wanted the ministry to be called. As so often has been the case in this work,
our name was revealed in the same way many other aspects of the ministry were; while
in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

While
doing a Holy Hour and thinking about everything but a name for the ministry, I
suddenly was hit in a very clear way with “Entering Canaan”. I remember
thinking, “What the heck is that suppose to mean God? How would this fit in
with post abortion healing?” I knew Canaan was
the Promised Land, but I had no clue as to how this would fit into the
ministry.  I decided I would go home and
read the story of the Israelites journey.

As I
moved through the books of the bible relating their journey, it began to make
so much sense that this would be the name. For the Israelites, the journey into
Canaan was filled with much trial and
tribulation. So many times they wanted to quit because they could not handle
the temptations and the many battles they had to fight. Some abandoned the
journey, some worshipped false gods, but others persevered and trusted in the
promise of God, that they should not fear, that He would be with them always,
even if they did not feel or see His presence, and that they would reach the
Promised Land. These bibles verses were so reminiscent of the journey to post
abortion healing I had to smile…of course “Entering Canaan”! Like the Israelites,
so many times we who are post abortive are tempted to quit our healing journey.
We want to turn back into denial, to worship false gods and believe the lies of
the devil. We do not trust the Lord being with us, but if we preserve, like the
promise to the Israelites His promises hold true to us.

But my
amazement with God did not stop there. As I finished reading I was overcome
with awe when I noticed which book of the bible it was that the Israelites
actually entered Canaan. The book of Joshua.
The same name I had given my aborted son over twenty year before. It was as if God
had it planned from the beginning, and there was no doubt as to what the
ministry would be named.

“And so, the Lord gave to Israel the land
He had sworn to their fathers He would give them. Once they had conquered and
occupied it, the Lord gave them peace on every side, just as He has promised
their fathers. Not one of their enemies could withstand them; the Lord brought
all their enemies under their power. Not a single promise that the Lord made to
the house of Israel
was broken; every one was fulfilled.” Joshua 21: 43-45

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