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What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
– Psalm 8:4
Today, on this mother’s day, we get to remember that we once where not much of anything. We didn’t know anything, we needed constant care. Yes, we were all once infants, and the only reason we survived is because a mother loved and nurtured us. For most of us, it was our biological mother who offered such care, but I am thankful, too, for all the surrogate mom’s out there. Those who simply take care of others, because it’s the right thing to do. I find that this kind of love is the closest to the agape love of God any of us can know from another human.
Those with a mothering spirit, and a mother love nurture and care for us, uplift us, make us want to be better, and are there to catch us when we fall. They are always mindful of us. Sound like the love of someone greater? Sounds, to me, much like a god-sized love. Our psalm today, exclaims the wonder that God, the one who created the heavens and the earth and everything in them, who created the stars and the planets and put them in place; this God, is also mindful of us. This God wants to share with us a love that we don’t fully understand. He cares for us like a mother caring for her children.
I find that this kind of love is more intimate to our being than we realize. God not only knows all that there is to know about us, but God wants to know us. God cares about our day, our good times and our hard times. God wants to even know of the mundane in which we feel we just existed (I’ve had a few days like that in quarantine). Yet, God is capable, and desires this type of relationship with every human being that has existed and ever will exist. But how can we know that?
I fully believe God starts loving us through our mothers (or mothering figures in our life). Our mothers knew us second only to God. It was most probably your mother who told your father that you were coming. Your mother prayed for you, wished for you, hoped for you, she held you in her arms, and loved even before you were here. Why does a mother love her young so? It’s because someone love her in the same way, perhaps her mother, perhaps other mothering figures in their life, but most importantly, we know all love comes from God. “We love because God first loved us” – 1 John 4:19.
God cares for us, loves us, we know this because of Jesus, but we also know because of a mother’s love. If you have a chance, and are able to do so, tell your mother thank you for showing you the path of love. If you aren’t able, give thanks to God for mothering you, giving you a mother, and many others who have shown you the path to his loving kindness. Thanks to all who have offered a mothering love. Amen.
Grace & Peace,
Sam