Beyond The Pulpit Ministries

When I was a seven- or eight-year-old kid, we lived about two blocks away from my favorite aunt and her two sons, who were my favorite cousins.  Every day after school and after homework, my mother would let me walk the two blocks alone to spend time with them.   

Between our two houses, however, was 17^th street – a very busy thoroughfare.  Normally, this street was nothing for me to navigate, but on one particular day, there had been a long freight train that came through town, and traffic was exceptionally heavy that afternoon.  It seems like I stood on that corner for an hour trying to get across that street.  

Finally, with the impatience of an eight-year-old, I made a run for it.  I darted between the oncoming cars, and all I remember was this huge 1960’s-era Buick barreling down on me.

In that moment, I did the only two things I could think of that would help: I reached out my hand to “stop” the car, and I cried out in my loudest voice: Mama-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a!

Of course, she was blocks away and nowhere near close enough to hear me, but I learned a lot about motherhood that day.  Moms are the closest thing we get to true soulmates. In that moment all I knew was that I was in danger, and in the depths of my soul I knew my mother meant safety.

I didn’t call for my auntie.  I didn’t call for my dad; my outcry for rescue was an appeal to my mother who wasn’t even in a place where she could hear me.  This is exactly what the late George Floyd did on that fateful day in Minnesota. He called for his mama.

Perhaps, that’s just the way God intended it.

Mothering is a strong theme emphasized again and again in Scripture, almost from the beginning.  Eve, who often gets a bad rap for that incident with the apple, was the first mother recorded in Scripture.  Adam could not have been fruitful and multiplied without Eve.

And who can forget the mothering instincts of Sarah, who was barren, but who became the means whereby God would establish a nation.  Without Sarah, we don’t have Isaac; without Isaac, we don’t get Jacob, and without Jacob, there is no Israel.  Mother Sarah is instrumental to all that.

And what about the mothering instincts of the widow Ruth.  She wasn’t even an Israelite, but she married into the family, and even after the death of her husband, she devoted herself to her mother-in-law Naomi.

“Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you,” Ruth says to her mother-in-law, “for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” (Ruth 1:16 NASB).

Even mothers-in-law figure prominently in Scripture.  Because of her devotion to Naomi, Ruth marries Boaz, and they have a son, Obed, who fathers a son, Jesse who gives us David who establishes the royal lineage of Jesus Christ. 

Speaking of whom, Jesus Himself likens His ministry to that of a mother: 

He bemoans first century Israel: “(H)ow often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:27 NIV)

This language clearly communicates the importance of mothering.  A mother hen is selflessly devoted to her chicks. She never abandons them when danger arises. A mother hen gathers her chicks together beneath her wing to protect them in a time of trouble.

Sounds like Jesus to me. He is the pinnacle of mothering instincts.  He laid down His life for us through the Crucifixion. By sending Holy Spirit, He gave birth to us like a mother to a newborn.  He came to the earth to protect us from the danger of the enemy. We are safe beneath His wings.

So, when you think of your mother this Sunday, remember that she’s modeled after a strong Biblical tradition. Her instincts are shaped by divine order. That which makes her a mother is the love, adoration, and total commitment she has to her children.

God made mothers, and like everything else God made, it has been good.