Every one of us are here because a woman with a womb carried precious seed and perfectly incubated all the mysterious growing until the time was right. She rocked us under her heart as we floated undone and she imagined. When the day of travail came, she worked mighty hard to bring forth all that had been unseen until that time. She would not…could not rest until she held her prize. Bones of her bones and flesh of her flesh.
The first time I ever found myself in proper labour, it made perfect sense to be certain of our child’s birth date. He would arrive before midnight, all the signs were pointing to that fact. Midnight arrived and still we held no baby in our arms. At three minutes past, out he came! A boy! What we didn’t realise in those cool, thin, new-day moments was that it was Mother’s Day! What a gift to give our mothers, a grandson! There I lay, speechless, eyes sparkling like stars – a mother! Me? Could it really be true that this tiny bundle of perfection was mine? Sometimes I understand clearly that God is at work constantly in the very fine details of our lives. I believe it was Him thinking “They’ll be over the moon with this one what ever time he arrives, but I’m going to push things into the newest part of the new day for a little something more. Happy Mother’s Day!”
Did you know that when Jesus turned the water into wine, he made about six hundred litres of wine? He turned pure water into six hundred litres of choice wine towards the end of the party when many of the guests would have had enough to drink to not even notice good quality! He is not small minded in any way. There is nothing frugal or miserly about him. He is lavish when it comes to gifts and surprises and celebrations. He is the giver of good gifts. He says children are a blessing, a gift and a reward. He chose your mother to birth you – a priceless gift to carry His light in a dark world. It’s interesting that it was Jesus’s mother telling him to perform His first miracle. He said it wasn’t time, but she saw something else.
Mothers are something exceptional. I hope that yours is as kind, wise, patient, wild, hard-working, rule-breaking, generous, thoughtful, energetic and good-fun as mine is. Maybe yours couldn’t be all she wanted to be for you. Maybe she is no longer with us. I reach my hand out to squeeze yours. I know for a fact that my mom is available for far more ‘children’ than the three she birthed. You can share her with me if you like. It’s like that in life, have you noticed? Sometimes you find yourself in a relationship that is not flesh and blood or same family name, and yet you choose one another. There are many people in my life who treat me like a daughter and I look up to them as a mother. I would accept any admonishment from them because I am first loved by them. I know I have a special place in their heart. Their power to make me a better person is far greater than that of an expert professor with all the knowledge and none of the influence.
Who might need mothering today? Women all over the world, who may never have birthed a child, have all the instincts to mother. There is some unwritten code of behaviour to fulfil when a woman is faced with plants that are wilting, abandoned babies, hungry people or a bully who needs calling out. We don’t need to have given birth to anyone to turn into a mother bear for them should the need arise.
When Laura, of Little House on the Prairie, was fretting about going out to a dinner party for the very first time, her mother replied, “You have been taught how to behave wherever you are, Laura. You need only behave properly, as you know how to do.” I never knew her, but my heart has been touched so many times by this brave pioneer mother. My children and I read their family’s story aloud and marvel over they way they lived, so long ago and yet not backwards at all. Ma Ingalls also said “Least said, soonest mended,” and I have remembered that on many an occasion when I might have regretted the torrent of words ready to come out.
So thank you to all our mothers in all their shapes, forms and capacities. I thank you for your hard work and dedication to my family, our community, in Africa and all the world. You are irreplaceable.
Proverbs 1 v 8 & 9: “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.”
Luke 1 v 45 “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.”
Leave a Reply