“Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.” —Proverbs 23:25 KJV
Today is a day we celebrate mothers in America. Often mom’s lead hard lives, but they give a tremendous amount of love in the midst of those challenges. Today is my sixth Mother’s Day without my mom. Sometimes I wonder why she put up with me, but she loved and supported me through all of it.
Was she perfect? None of us are. Despite her imperfections, she did the best she could in every situation.
When I look at mothers in the Bible, I see the same: imperfect women who walked a journey that will take them to the Promised Land.
Consider Eve. She must have been devastated when one son murdered another, knowing that it was because of her choice to eat the fruit.
Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, and Elisabeth: year after year, they suffered childlessness. In 1 Samuel 1:10, we read that Hannah “was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.”[1]
Then there is Naomi. She and her family had to go to a foreign land just to eat. Her husband died. Her two sons were married. Afterward, they died too!
Once Naomi returned home, people started asking her questions. In Ruth 1:20, she responded, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.”[2] Naomi was so disappointed in her life experience.
All of these ladies found joy and went on to lead productive lives, leaning on the Lord. Eve gave birth to Seth, Sarah to Isaac, Rachel to Joseph and Benjamin, Hannah to Samuel, and Elisabeth to John the Baptist. Naomi’s widowed daughter-in-law Ruth, the Moabitess, married Boaz, whose descendants include Jesus Christ Himself.
Many of us think of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to be the ultimate of mothers. Was she perfect? No. Yet, she accepted God’s call to bear the Child out of wedlock. She knew the challenges would be formidable. Nevertheless, she endured—even the pain of her Son’s cruel crucifixion. She did it for all of us.
If you still have your mom, give her a little extra love today. She doesn’t expect anything fancy, just a phone call, a hug, anything that will show her that you appreciate the sacrifices she made for you.
[1] Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.