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When I later told Hall that my husband and I had removed the safety lock from the door to my womb in case the Great Lover of Strangers wanted to send any visitors our way, she said that she had a closet full of baby clothes just in case.

Ah, baby clothes. Living in the space where human and divine freedoms overlap doesn't come easy, so my first reaction to her offer was weak-throated: gulp.

It's one thing to get off the pill and another to be actively trying to conceive. Leaving my door unlocked doesn't necessarily mean that I must stand in the street, asking passersby to come in, right? I believe in free will. And in a Christian's right to use condoms and/or natural family planning (NFP). For a time that my husband and I will determine, we feel free not to solicit visitors.

Even the pope gets that.

Since his church members have got this NFP thing together, my husband and I took the Catholic Couple-to-Couple League's training course. NFP is no longer our grandmothers' calendar roulette. It can be tricky to master, but when properly applied, it can be 99 percent effective. Let me define "effective." In addition to bringing husbands and wives closer, NFP is great for planning pregnancy (no, I don't say this facetiously) as well as for delaying it.

But you never know.

And in this not knowing, we remain open. Consistent life ethicist that she is, Hall taught me that being pro-life isn't only about opposing surgical abortion. It's about opening ourselves to the risk and mess and uncertainty that accompany any God-sent guest we allow into our lives. The least we can do is leave our doors unlocked. Like Rahab did for the spies. Like Mary did for Jesus.

For Hall, this openness to divine interruption extends beyond defending embryos to adopting a child, lobbying workplaces to offer generous maternity policies, making sure to work as a professor no more than 40 hours a week, and sharing baby clothes.

I want my faith to be as imaginative.

When Jesus appears on my doorstep—disguised as a cluster of 128 cells or a single mother who could use some free baby-sitting —he'd better find an open door.

Agnieszka Tennant is senior associate editor of Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Amy Laura Hall's interview with Agnieszka Tennant is available on our website.

Sam and Bethany Torode write about their choice for natural family planning.

Jenell Williams Paris, author of Birth Control for Christians, blogs her disagreement with Tennant's conclusions. Paris is also author of Community and Conscience | Catholics and contraception for Books & Culture.

Other CT articles on reproduction and birth control include:

Has Natural Birth Control Been Proved Impossible? | Don't believe the media reports, cautions the author of Birth Control for Christians. (July 15, 2003)

Make Love and Babies | The contraceptive mentality says children are something to be avoided. We're not buying it. (Nov. 9, 2001)

'Be Fruitful and Multiply' | Is this a command, or a blessing? By Raymond C. Van Leeuwen (Nov. 9, 2001)

Souls on Ice | The costs of in vitro fertilization are moral and spiritual—not just financial (June 24, 2003)

400K and Counting | Christians recoil at explosive growth of frozen human embryos (June 24, 2003)

Charity Defies California Law on Contraception | Court to decide if state can require Catholic ministries to pay for birth control (June 25, 2002)

Hannah's Sisters | At a Washington Assembly of God, prayers for fertility are answered (Mar. 21, 2002)

Books & Culture Corner: More Sex, Fewer Children | Mixed messages on condoms, contraception, and fertility. By John Wilson (Sept. 10, 2001)

No Room in the Womb? | Couples with high-risk pregnancies face the 'selective reduction' dilemma (dec. 10, 1999)

How to Make a Person | New reproductive technologies raise difficult moral issues. (Jan. 6, 1997)

Mourning the Morning-After Pill | A Christianity Today Editorial (Apr. 7, 1997)

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November 2005, Vol. 49, No. 11