May 12th, 2019

Mothers! I heard someone say in jest the other day, “Mothers, we wouldn’t be here without them.” Its true, mothers are the instruments through which God brings all of us into this world. The Bible says, “Can a mother forget her nursing child and have no compassion for the child she has borne?” In another scripture, the Bible affirms motherhood, “Listen my son to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck” (Proverbs 1:8-9). There is no question that our mothers have sacrificed greatly for us. Without them, we would not be where we are, and we would not have become what we are without their love and sacrifices for us. They deserve garlands of praise and necklaces of thanksgiving for all they have done for their children.
 
Edgar Allen Poe wrote of mothers:

The angels whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of “Mother.”

 
A mother’s love is a spiritual quality. The apostle Paul describes it this way, “…Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, its is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres…love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a). Most of what we know about love we learned from watching our mothers. Mothers are walking examples of love that make their mark upon the lives of countless people every day. Can you imagine what our world would be like without them.
 
When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teacher sent him home from school with a note attached to him which read, “Your child is dumb. We can’t do anything for him.” Mrs. Edison wrote back, “You do not understand my boy. I will teach him myself.” And we all know the rest of the story. Abraham Lincoln said, “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” So, when someone says, “…we wouldn’t be here without them,” we not only would not be here, but we would be something far different than what we are without their love and devotion to us.
 
We honor our mothers today. Each one is a gift from God not only to their children, but also to the health and spiritual quality of our world. God knew what He was doing when He created Eve to be the mother of mankind.
 
Martin Luther said of her, “When Eve was brought unto Adam, he became filled with the Holy Spirit, and gave her the most sanctified, the most glorious of appellations. He called her Eve, that is to say the Mother of All. He did not style her as wife, but simply mother, mother of all living creatures. In this consists the glory and the most precious ornament of woman.” So today, let’s all celebrate the fact that every mother in our church has made it to the top of God’s Hall of Fame. There is no higher place in God’s honor roll than what a woman achieves when she becomes a mother.
 

May God bless all our mothers today.