A Story of Two Mothers - King Solomon Decides - What is True Motherhood?

Pretty much everyone who has read or heard stories from the Bible, have all heard the well known story of two women who sought a judgment from King Solomon over a baby. One woman had apparently rolled over on her baby during the night and smothered it, or perhaps it had died of crib-death, unknown at the time. Either way, there were now two mothers, one child alive, another child dead, who were both fighting over the live child.

Today in the news, there are again two mothers, with one child alive and one dead. The 1st mother from Hanover Park, Illinois, is being held without bail on first-degree murder and concealment of the homicide of her own newborn baby boy.  Nineteen year old Jessica Cruz walked into a Salvation Army store on November 4th and asked to use the employee bathroom, where she then gave birth to a 6 lb. baby boy, strangled him, and threw him in the garbage can.

Cruz had just recently graduated from high school, and had been hiding the pregnancy from everyone, except the baby's father. As Cruz is held, awaiting to appear in court, we do not yet know her full story.  Whatever drove her to commit such a heinous act?  Was she afraid of parents?  Had her boyfriend abandoned her?  We don't yet know the full story of what Cruz was going through, which led her to savagely murder her own baby.  We know abortion proponents use the argument of the stresses and fears and dangers that women suffer from pregnancy, to justify legalized killing of unborn babies.  But, as of yet, we do not know Cruz' story.

That aside, let's look at the other young mother, the 2nd mother, who was also experiencing stress, fears, dangers and abandonment, and what she "chose" to do about her unexpected pregnancy.  Bethany Saros had just been deployed to Iraq, when she discovered she was pregnant.  The contraceptive she had used, failed, and her boyfriend, the father of the child, broke his promise to stand by her and abandoned her. Furthermore, as a soldier in the military, particularly one who had just been deployed to a war-zone, she experienced "unspoken pressure" to "abort" her child, so that she could "carry on with the mission".

Saros had been experiencing stresses and trials for quite some time, as she had gone through an abusive marriage, a contentious divorce and another failed relationship.  If that wasn't enough, she had also recently been raped by a co-worker, and was struggling with her own alcohol problem.  Then, upon just arriving in Iraq, she discovers she is with child.

Her boyfriend asked her, "Are you going to keep it?"  To which she answered, "YES." "I can't do an abortion, I just can't."  At which point, even though he  had promised to stand by her, his promise proved meaningless, and she found herself, pregnant, abandoned and halfway around the world from home. She felt as though her whole world had "come crashing down."  Is that enough stress, fear and danger for ya?  Planned Parenthood would have welcomed her into one of their clinics with open arms.

But despite all these obstacles, Saros was determined to keep her child stating, "I had let everyone around me down." But I wasn't going to let the little person snuggled up in my belly down."

Back to the Bible story.  It is not really completely clear how the one woman's baby died, though I doubt she had strangled it. Yet, upon discovering her baby had died during the night, she decides she is simply going to steal the other woman's baby. And so, they both end up in the famous court of King Solomon; who then has to choose, which woman is the "true mother". Without DNA tests, King Solomon relies on the gift of wisdom with which God had endowed him, and he comes up with a test to prove who is the true mother.  He declares that the baby shall be cut in two, and half given to each woman.  We know that one mother immediately praised King Solomon for such a wise judgement, and went right along with the idea of killing the baby.  But, the other woman cried for the child to be spared, even telling the King he could give it to the other mother, rather than see it be killed.  Of course for those who know their Bible stories, King Solomon then states, that this was the "true mother", and she is awarded her baby.

Fast forward to today - how are these two stories connected?  Well, today's two mothers are not in the court of King Solomon.  One of the babies did not die by it's own mother's hand, and she is not seeking to steal the other woman's baby.  But, the connection here is simply in how King Solomon is able to draw out what true motherhood really is.  Whichever woman had been the true birth mother in the story, is not even at the heart of the question.  A true mother, by King Solomon's measuring stick, is simply one who is willing to sacrifice for her own child, instead of only looking out for herself.

Between these two mothers in today's blog, Cruz vs Saros, one, Jessica Cruz was willing to go to the most violent lengths, rather than face whatever challenges the birth of her baby might pose; while the other, Bethany Saros, was willing to give her baby life, against all odds.  She was willing to protect the life of her child, no matter what the personal cost was to herself.

All women faced with an out of wedlock pregnancy, can face embarrassment and shame in one way or another. But Bethany Saros states, "One day, my son will be old enough to ask me questions, and I want to be able to tell him that I gave him the best life I possibly could. At the end of the day, my son will be the only person I will have to explain myself to."

In today's abortion age, the test of true motherhood is based on something other than "sacrifice" as in King Solomon's time.  All parents today, view parenthood as simply having something to do with, having some little progeny, that they can give soccer lessons, I-PODs and a college degree; and of course all the brand-name clothing of the day. The idea that the child might come along unscripted, and put a crimp in all these grandiose plans, is just unthinkable. And abortion or murder (what's the difference) in a Salvation Army store, or in a Planned Parenthood clinic, seems the judgement of today.

At the end of the day, there's not a lot of difference between a woman strangling her newborn in a bathroom, and a doctor sucking it's brains out, just because it's head has not presented itself.  Abortion is murder, not choice.  What would King Solomon say about abortion? Would he judge this to be the act of "true motherhood".