Mother’s Day 2010

Now the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

Genesis 3:20

I attended my two sets of friends son and daughter's wedding yesterday. It was a beautiful event. In the middle of it I had a memory from my past that set me on an emotional journey. It was wonderful.


All day I kept seeing the plan of God in creating a woman.


Adam, in his own thinking, probably thought he fully knew why she ws created when he first laid eyes on her.


The man said,
"This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man."

Genesis 2:23

But it was later that he more fully understood what I was meditating on yesterday.

As much as the wedding yesterday was about the couple I could not help but see that it was more about the giving of life.

The mother of the Bride was radiant as she always is. The father of the bride was the sweet wonderful man who could barely contain his tears as he walked his firstborn down the aisle. But both were marking a passage of time that would be forever fixed. Their baby was now ready to have her own babies. We make marriage so much about the couple and it is for sure. But it is mostly about the secret Adam found out a while after he first thought the woman who woke him up from his dreams was all for him.

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD."

Genesis 4:1

A young woman I know well asked me why do people get married? I find people ask me that often today. It is interesting that before birth control became a science people did not ask that question much. It really has never been so much about sex as it has been about babies. You see God created the beauty of sexual intimacy, as He does with most things he creates, with a greater purpose in mind:

Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring.

Malachi 2:15a

The reason God allows us the precious gift of physical intimacy is that He desires the world to go on. He gives us the covenant of marriage to build a place of protection, provision and belonging for the children that until this generation would naturally come as a result of that intimacy.

In our narcissistic world this is easy to forget.

It is also easy to forget that God planted in Eve's body and in most of her daughters since the amazing gift of life giving. I know the man has a part but it is the body that God gave Eve that was able to bring forth life and to nourish that life even after it came forth from the womb.
Adam called his bride "woman" the day he first met her. But he called her an new name after she gave birth.

Now the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

Genesis 3:20

He called her "Life." Chava in Hebrew means life. God created her to give life. He created every woman to do so even if she cannot do so physically.

I did a meditation on communion this last week to share with our Men's group. As I was preparing I thought about the experience of the cross and who really stayed with Jesus to the end..... even when there was nothing left for them to gain by doing so. I thought about who cared for his body when it was broken beyond recognition.

Perhaps it is because I am older and watching my own precious mother fail. Perhaps it is because I stand in amazement of the woman my children call mother. But I don't think I have ever seen so clearly that it was Jesus mother who went through the whole experience of the cross with her beloved son. The prphetic word to her when she was just a young mom so full of dreams of what her boy would be was too true.

. . . and a sword will pierce even your own soul  

Luke 2:35

Except for John, all those who he had invested so much of his life into deserted him. Only his mother and a few women stayed close during his awful agony.

At the wedding I noticed two women and their daughters.

I work with several severely physically and mentally challenged students in my school. It is not my teaching assignment but a personal commitment outside of my professional responsibility. I primarily teach a JK/SK class. But I visit the developmental class in our school almost daily during my lunch time to spend time with our special needs children. I have come to know a few of their mom's. What always amazes me is the commitment most of these women have towards their children.

I saw that again yesterday as a mom brought her daughter who could not be outside of her mother's touch due to her challenges. The young woman constantly held her mother's hand. The mother, quite unconsciously now i am sure, was continually aware of her daughter's need for assurance in this new environment and giving it to her by her words and touch. What a picture of devotion. I stand in awe of such love.

I stand in awe of His image set forth in the love of a mother who gives up so much of herself to care for a child through his or her formative years and, as for this mother, for the rest of their lives . It reminded me that God uniquely manifests His love through men and women.

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:27

My observation of the second mom and daughter was the one that took me back to my own childhood. The daughter I would guess is about eight or nine years old. Her mother is a wonderful person who has invested into my own daughter's life as a mentor. She is a very outgoing person who expresses care for everyone she meets. She was being herself at the reception and going from table to table chatting and spreading her own unique gift of joy.

That part I have known for years. What caught my attention was the young girl that followed her from table to table. Her little shadow never left her side. She was not a part of the conversation. nor was she demanding her mother's attention. I imagine that mom did not even really know she was there most of the time. But there she was touching her mother's hair and redoing it.... holding tightly to her hand... listening intently to her mom speak..... never taking her eyes off her mom.... laughing when her mom laughed..... She was the picture of adoration of her mom.

Her mother could have never demanded what her daughter so willingly gave. I don't know how it happens but I remember when I felt that way about my mom too. And it all came back like a flood yesterday as I saw this adoring daughter express her devotion simply by delighting to be in her mom's presence. It was sweet beyond words. Such a picture of what God wants us to share with Him.

I remember on mother's day I would save my pennies for weeks so I could buy mom a box of chocolate cherries. She confessed to me many years later that she never liked them but loved my heart in giving them. I remember the deep love I felt for her as a young child. She was the centre of my world then.

The darkness of a broken home, abandonment and broken promises brought that blissful world to an end so suddenly that for years I was unable to get past my own pain to see hers. In that I lost a treasure. That is why God hates divorce. Not because he wants to inflict misery on couples who hate each other. Not because He wants to give a standard so those who have great marriages can reject those who don't but because he loves children and wants them to live in the protection, provision and presence of two parents who have moved beyond themselves to build a life for their children that is stable and loving.

I am sure that the young woman who I saw such adoration of her mom in yesterday will never face the world that tore that same adoration from my heart from me. And I am so glad she won't. Sadly I know that more and more every day may never even have a chance to develop it. The chaos in our relationships is like planting little seedlings and uprooting them a thousand times. I see the devastation effects of it every day in the students I teach.

But I also see the devotion of the same one who stayed close to her son as his life drained out of him on the cross - even when they have been left by the one who made them a mother. 

What would I have done without my mom when dad left?

So today I once again feel what I did as a young boy. I am so grateful for my mom.

In keeping with the theme, one of my good friends told me yesterday how her young grandson called her up and said. "Nana I want to take my mom out for dinner to a nice restaurant." Nana said, "It is very expensive to take someone out to a nice restaurant." He said, "That's why I am calling you!" The rest of the story you can fill in for this grandmother was a wonderful mom before she was a grandmother and she has learned what is important to fund and what is not. The envelope with the money for dinner was transferred in secret and the arrangements to work of the debt were wisely arranged and God was manifested on earth again in the love of a little boy, his grandmother and an adored mom.

Such are gifts of life among us give to us daily.... the daughters of the first life giver- Eve.