Happy Mother’s Day!
One thing Adam and Eve didn’t have – a mother! I saw someone put up Adam and Eve’s baby pictures – a little pile of dirt and a rib. I’m glad I had a good mom. I’m glad my wife has been a good mom and now Grandma to our tribe.
Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day; these are all uniquely American holidays, as is Mother’s Day. Yet Mother’s Day bears another distinction from these others. Mother’s Day always falls on Sunday.
It is natural that those who wished to find a way to honor mothers and motherhood would have wanted to see it connected with things like the Lord’s Day and church and congregations of believers. How is this so? Several reasons come to mind.
1. The love of mothers is something like the love of God for His children. A mother’s love has the character of a sometimes-sacrificial love. It’s a love that is given without regard to the measure of its return. It is a nurturing kind of love.
2. It is often the mother, more than any other family member, who sees the importance of the spiritual nurturing of the children.
3. It is more often mom who the child runs to when hurt than dad. Mom empathizes and can say without being a liar, “I feel your pain.” Mom is the one who binds up the wounds and comforts the heart. In these things it is she who is more like our Lord.
4. It’s more likely to be mom who provides the warnings to the children and has the more watchful eye over them. When mom says, “I’m leaving you with daddy to watch you while I run to the store,” what is heard by the children is, “I’m leaving you on your own while I run to the store.”
The loving, nurturing, caring, guarding, guiding heart of God for His children is best reflected in those characteristics of motherhood, and so Sunday IS the best day of the week to celebrate Mother’s Day!