Hi everyone,
Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers, all of you who have mothers, and all of you who celebrate mothers!
Every year when Mother’s Day rolls around, I feel like I am a bit stuck. Not because the day is about someone else and I want everything to be about me, but more because I’m often wondering how to properly honour the mothers in our community and in our lives, and I suppose, my own mother and the mother of my children (two different people, by the way).
Publicly, it’s difficult because there is such a diverse gamut of experiences with mothers. Some had great mothers, some had horrible ones. Some had mothers who led or continue to lead very long and full lives, and some lost their mother very early on. Some enjoy their own motherhood, while others might be too overwhelmed to or cannot have children of their own.
So it’s a struggle to honour those who want/wish/deserve to be honoured, while honouring those who for various reasons might not fit in that category.
However, I continue to lean on the fact that it isn’t exactly the person of a mother that we honour, but the love of a mother in its purest form. I know we all can’t be the flawless and perfect mothers of the 80’s family sitcoms, but we can appreciate the example that they set forth, we can rejoice in the love that can be given to the best of a mother’s ability, and we can find hope in the love like that of a mother’s that we have received and have learned to give.
This isn’t an easy love, that’s for sure. To be so unconditional and impartial, but it is a love that we can have and move us to reflect it onto others. It’s a love that we can draw strength from. It’s a love that joins us together as a family.
Thank God for mothers.
Here are the readings for next week:
Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35
And a video of me reading them:
This motherly love that we’re talking about is not too unlike the love that Jesus speaks of, and how he wishes it upon all people as he prepares them for the difficult days ahead. Jesus describes how he and God are one, and that it is love that joins them and love that moves them and love that they give to all.
And we can just accept it.
But in accepting that love, we too are joined with each other. We too are moved to be more than we are. We too want to show and share that love with others.
I know life isn’t always that fairy tale perfect though, and that things get in the way and make it difficult for us even like each other, let alone love each other. But that’s the thing about this Godly motherly love: it’s gracious, it’s resilient, and it’s strong.
Strong enough to weather the storms. Strong enough to forgive all wrongs. Strong enough to save.
That is God’s love for us. God’s strong, inclusive, motherly love.
Thanks be to God! Have a great week everyone!