When I was growing up, birthday parties were fun but simple. There were no bouncy houses, pony rides or piñatas. No pizza parties and no trips to the zoo or the movies. No one had ever heard of party guests heading home with goodie bags.  

At my parties, the kids wore jaunty party hats and sat merrily at a picnic table in the backyard. Usually, the entertainment was pinning the tail on the donkey, but one memorable year, the fun centered on my mom’s inability to cut the frozen ice-cream cake. She resorted to using a hammer to tap the knife into the cake, which caused plenty of laughs.  

I was stunned many years later, when my mother-in-law, who taught students with behavioral disorders, told me some of her students had never had a birthday party. Sadly, many came from homes where they were neglected. To celebrate their special day, she hosted a classroom party for each child, complete with a cake and cards. It was like saying, “You are special! You are loved!”  

Children who have never felt special might have trouble believing God loves them. They might be told Jesus died for them, but if their earthly parents did not sacrifice for them, this could be hard to fathom. Fortunately, through God’s grace, the message of love can heal the most bruised heart.  

Secular society claims conception occurs because biological circumstances are just right. But the word “procreation” reminds us that conception is in the hands of the creator. This means every baby conceived results from God willing that special child into existence, as the Book of Jeremiah reminds us: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.”  

British writer George MacDonald wrote, “I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.”  

I have family members who adopted children; they told me some of the kids never had regular meals and baths. Birthday parties are foreign to these kids, but their adoptive parents make sure their special days are celebrated.  

Tragically, some children will never have a party because they were never born. Society calls abortion “health care,” but there is nothing healthy or caring for the baby who dies. All the plans God has for that precious child are crushed in that moment.  

When Jesus’ disciples could not cast out a demon from a boy, he said, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” As a way to follow Jesus’ advice, prayer and fasting are the bedrock of Forty Days for Life, an international, Christian movement devoted to changing hearts and minds about abortion.  

During Forty Days for Life, which starts on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, some people sign up for peaceful prayer vigils outside abortion clinics, while others decide to pray and fast at home.  

Children don’t need bouncy houses and zoo trips to know they are special. A simple birthday party conveys the message of love. Let’s pray and fast to have a world where every baby is cherished, every baby is loved—and every baby is born.