The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. (Genesis 3:20 NRSV)
On Mother’s Day, we are – every one of us – indebted to our mothers, who brought us into this world.
I know there are different kinds of mothers: wonderful, good, bad, indifferent. Nevertheless, they gave birth to us: gave us life, grew us up and sent us off into our own worlds to be our own selves.
All of us has (or had) a mother. Those of you who still have your mother, I hope your relationship is wonderful and healthy and joyful. For those of you who have strained relationships (or no relationship at all) with your mother, I pray that will change, with God’s help, and that you will come to appreciate the special bond of mother and child. And for those of us who are mothers, I pray for wisdom, patience, forbearance and strength.
We have memories – mostly, I hope, wonderful memories – of learning who our mothers really are. As we grow up, we begin to understand why our mothers said “No,” when we wanted a “Yes,” and “Yes, you have to!” when we were looking for a “No, that’s OK.”
There does come a day when we realize the great gift that our mothers have given us. Life itself is a gift from our mothers (and fathers, of course), but, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that the moms handle most of the heavy lifting in the birthing process!
This Mother’s Day, offer a prayer of thanksgiving for your mother and take stock of your own mothering if you are a mother. If you know of a child – or a grown up! – who needs mothering, step in and become a surrogate mother!
God bless us every one!