Happy Mothers' Day!  Probably no "secular" holiday raises more mixed emotions than this one.  All of us have a biological mother.  Some of us never knew her.  Others, such as I, haven't had our mothers around for decades.  Still others have had mothers who hurt us in ways we can't even express.  That's not why we celebrate Mothers' Day.  We celebrate Mothers' Day, because a long time ago someone realized that for most of us, our mothers were the first ones to show us unconditional love.

For most of us, our mothers were the first ones to teach us about God and His love.  They taught us what servant leadership means.  Mothers' Day gives us the opportunity to say, "THANK YOU!" to those who, have sacrificed more for us than anyone else, and who are all too often taken for granted by us.

I appreciate what the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about the relationships we have with one another in the body of Jesus Christ:  Never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as you would your own father.  Talk to younger men as you would to your own brother.  Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters (1 Timothy 5:1-2 NLT) Paul understood that at its best the body of Jesus Christ is a healthy family!  I won't get to say, "Thank You!" to my mom today.  She's been with the Lord for twenty-one years.  Does that make me sad?  Of course it does.  At the same time, I celebrate who she was and all the ways her love showed me the love of Jesus.  So, I'll take the Apostle Paul's advice and treat older women as I would my Mom, and younger women with all purity as my sisters, not only today, but every day. (I'll also be respectful to older men as I would be do my Dad, and treat younger men as my brothers.)   As I do that I honor my Mom and Dad, and build up the body of Jesus.

 What if your mom wasn't there for you?  What if you want to be a mom and you're not? What if you are a mom, but you’ve lost a child or all your children and you are grieving the loss?  Those are difficult questions, and I don't presume to know what that feels like (although Nancy and I were childless for the first decade of our marriage, and we lost our first child to a miscarriage).  What I know is God is bigger than ALL our hurts, fears, anger and loss.  What I know is when Nancy and I lost our first baby, and when I lost my Mom, I had never known (nor have I since) such pain, grief and sense of loss.  In those times I got angry at God. I questioned God.  Then I turned to God.  He WAS there!  He has been ever since.

 Whatever your feelings today, God is there--God is HERE.  He loves us.  He celebrates the great relationships we know or have known--and hopefully that includes a loving mom.  But if it doesn't, He is there to strengthen us, to comfort us, to encourage us to move forward and to remember that regardless of what kind of biological mothers we have or had, His body, the Church, is a family where we can receive and share His love with one another.  Over the past several decades as I have celebrated Mothers' Day without my Mom, I've thanked God for her.  I've thanked her in my heart. I've thanked God for sending Nancy into my life, and for the motherly love she has for our children, Abby and Emmy (in whom I often see traits of my Mom!), and for the children of others around us.  I've also thanked God for all the godly women who have shown a mother's love to me, and sought to show them God's love in return.  It doesn't bring Mom back, but it certainly makes Mothers' Days much more enjoyable and special. So Happy Mothers' Day to all the women who know Jesus and seek to make Him known in and through your lives!