Mom’s Day
In light of Mother’s Day coming up this Sunday, any parent with grown kids may miss moments like this one…
For weeks, 6-year-old Tommy kept telling his first-grade teacher about the baby brother or sister expected at his house. One day his mom allowed him to feel the movements of the unborn child. The 6-year old was obviously impressed, but made no comment. He also stopped telling his teacher about the impending event. The teacher finally asked the little boy, "Tommy, whatever has become of that baby brother or sister you were expecting at home?" Tommy burst into tears and confessed, "I think Mommy ate it!”
How many moms would tackle the job of being a mother if they had thoroughly studied what was in store for them? Who in their right mind would have a clear and detailed view of the task that lay ahead and still voluntarily take on motherhood? Somehow, despite the mountainous highs and cavernous lows, moms choose to be moms, and we’re thankful they do!
On February 14, 1884, Theodore Roosevelt was at work in the New York state legislature, attempting to get a government reform bill passed, when he was summoned home by his family. He left to find his mother, Mittie, had succumbed to typhoid fever. On the same day, his wife of four years, Alice Lee, died of Bright’s disease, a severe kidney ailment. Only two days before her death, Alice Lee had given birth to the couple’s daughter, Alice. Years later, he wrote in his book The Great Adventure, published in 1918,
Alone of human beings the good and wise mother stands on a plane of equal honor with the bravest soldier; for she has gladly gone down to the brink of the chasm of darkness to bring back the children in whose hands rests the future of the years.
Because moms have always played an incredibly significant role in the history of humanity, it is no surprise that they play a significant role in the Bible. It is interesting that when God the Father describes His comfort, He compares it to that of a mother. Isaiah writes, “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; And you will be comforted in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:13).
Do you find it significant that we have a Heavenly Father, but no “Heavenly Mother”? People refer to “Mother Earth” and to the natural world as “Mother Nature.” Space aliens return to the “Mother Ship” and extreme weather is called “the Mother of All Storms.” Nice try, but a poor and impersonal substitute for the kind of relationship we have with our Heavenly Father.
Perhaps the reason we have a Heavenly Father is that when it comes to parents, our earthly moms come closest to possessing that divine quality of omniscience—they’re always there. Historically, it has been the dads who sometimes aren’t. In fact, do a search on the word “fatherless” in your Bible. If you have a computer to assist you, you’ll see no fewer than 43 references to “fatherless” in the King James Version of the Bible. (To be fair, the New American Standard Bible uses the term only about 8 times, since it is usually translated “orphan.” Do the same search on “motherless” and you’ll come up with zip, no references to that—in either translation. Interesting.
What an incredible privilege and responsibility parents have in being the primary influence for God in the lives of the next generation. Moms’ prayers and input seem to be a common denominator in a high percentage of the children who have been persuaded to embrace Christianity.
The Apostle Paul was a spiritual father to young Pastor Timothy. Paul called him “a true child in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2). But Paul primarily credited Timothy’s mother (Eunice) and grandmother (Lois) with passing along the legacy of “genuine faith”—as Paul says—that Timothy received.
We can only imagine what the New Testament would have been like without Paul’s letters to Timothy and how it may have negatively affected the spread of the Gospel and growth of the early church had Timothy never come to faith in Christ. Score another one for moms.
“Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” —Proverbs 31:30