Motherhood and apple pie are two topics about which there is little debate. Both are seen as inherently good, especially the latter with a scoop of ice cream!
In Genesis, motherhood is God’s good gift established for the procreation and nurture of children. However, in our fallen world, motherhood can at the same time be satisfying and frustrating, joyful and the source of much sadness…for both mothers and children.
Whatever the mix of experience that comes with motherhood, there is no doubt self-sacrifice is at the centre. Rightly do the Scriptures command: ‘Honour your father and mother, and rightly does Jesus rebuke those who neglect this duty (Mark 7:9-13).
For God’s people, it is not uncommon that upon a mother’s knee children learn the gospel. It was certainly the experience of the young Timothy (2Timothy 1:5) who, with this foundation, went on to a lifetime of active ministry in the service of his Lord.
Not surprisingly, Paul urges Timothy to instruct children and grandchildren to provide for their widowed mothers and to ‘make some return to their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God’ (1Timothy 5:4).
This is precisely the example Jesus set as He made provision for His mother at the point of His own immense pain on the cross (John 19:26-27).
We all have a mother and whether the remembrance of our mother today is that of gratitude or perhaps tinged with sadness, God’s ‘mothering’ of His people will always stand as the perfect example and experience of all His children.
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you”.
Isaiah 49:15.
– PHIL PRATT