Hello, everyone, I’m Ty’Ann Brown, encouraging you to keep the faith.
Well, we’re coming up on Mother’s Day. That’s right. It’s a time where we celebrate our mothers and our grandmothers, and we shower them with gifts and flowers and cards, all to demonstrate our love for them.
But of course, this can also be a painful time for those who have lost their mothers or those who long for a mother or those who even have a difficult relationship with their mother. In those cases, sometimes we choose to honor those who have been like a mother to us.
Why all the celebration? Well, a mother’s love is strong. It’s powerful, it is life-affirming. It’s like no other love on the planet. In fact, a mother’s love requires a lot of hard work and sacrifice from the time they carry the child through nine months of pregnancy all the way up into their adulthood. Actually, most people will say that it’s one of the most hardest yet rewarding jobs that they’ve ever had in their life.
The Bible is full of stories of mothers who worked hard and sacrificed and love like no other. Take Mary, for an example. She stood by Jesus throughout his entire life, even up until his crucifixion. Now people scattered and betrayed him, but Mary stood by his side, even until the very bitter end. Now, Jesus recognizes this, and He rewards her by saying, “Son, behold thy mother.” Jesus entrusts Mary into the care of John the Disciple. So even Jesus on his last days on the earth, He makes sure that his mother is taken care of.
But if you think about it, there’s a love that’s just as strong and powerful as a mother’s love, and that’s God’s Love. Just like a mother, God is always there, no matter where we are, and what circumstances we find ourselves in. While we turn to our mothers with problems both big and small, from bruised knees to broken relationships, we too can turn to God with all of our problems and disappointments and frustrations. And God promises to be with us and to comfort us, for Isaiah 66:13 says, that “As one whom a mother comforts, so will I comfort you.”
The fact is that God’s love is greater than any mother’s love. God offered a sacrifice that none of us can fully truly comprehend. He sacrificed His only Son, Jesus Christ, because He loved us so much. He proves that he will always put us first. As Tim Keller has said, He was forsaken so that we could know we would never be.
So celebrate your mothers and anyone who has ever nurtured you like a mother. And remember that through the good times and the bad that God loves you and nurtures you too. God bless you and keep the faith.
