I've long been fascinated by the hidden, largely unknown people who have served as the catalyst for someone else's conversion. People like Ponticianus, who stopped in one day to visit with his friends Augustine and Alypius. In the course of their conversation, Ponticianus told them about the Egyptian monk Antony and how two of Ponticianus' friends who stumbled upon a book about Antony were inspired to immediately leave everything behind and become monks. Ponticianus then left, unaware that he had set off an earthquake of conversion in the soul of the future Saint Augustine, an earthquake whose aftershocks are felt to this day.
In our own time, I've been thinking a lot lately about a 13-week old unborn baby who was aborted on September 26, 2009. Like millions of babies before and since, the little baby futilely fought to escape the abortionist's instrument that ultimately took its life. The baby would have just been another statistic, except for the fact that someone, horrified, was watching its life and death struggle on an ultrasound monitor. It was a moment of conversion for Abby Johnson, and her life, and the lives of thousands of others whom she has touched, will never be the same.Thank you, little baby, for fighting the good fight in your all-too-brief life. I can easily imagine Jesus welcoming you into Heaven with the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
