About wives: and mothers (mother's day post)

I am wary of sentimentalism and the commercialisation of our deepest values, but for my own reasons I will honor all mothers - my own mom and the mother of my sons in particular. She is the greatest human model of the unseen hands of compassion that sustain this world. There is a very kingly side to God - authoritative, no nonsense, clear cut, powerful. On more than one occasion that side of God has had to be restrained through intercession, else He would have wiped out His people or destroyed the earth.

But there is another side to Him, reflected by women, particularly by mothers. It sees the hand of judgement and discipline rise, then rushes in to restrain that hand, pulling it back and restoring perspective. For our God, fearsome as He is, a great consuming fire, is also slow to wrath and quick to show mercy. His love endures to countless generations, His mercies are ever sure.

It is straightforward and unambiguous to model the "masculine"side of His nature, but only a mother can model the other side. Her love thrives in contradiction, pain, thanklessness, weariness, complexity, ambiguity - even rejection. She is uniquely equipped to endure and stay on an even keel when her family stumbles under the load of illness, discouragement or vulnerability.

She has enough bandwidth to task over many different thing simultaneously: a unique provision of God. Yet for all her breadth of focus, that focus is as deep and intense. She loves beyond reason and never stops doing so. She has no envy, never vaunts herself, is patient and kind. Her physical and emotional reservoir is beyond measure: deeper than the sea. She epitomises God's love for humankind, His redemptive heart and His burning desire to save all his children (whilst respecting their choices).

I recently faux pax'ed whilst trying to make a point to an audience, but they let me put it right - I said, "She is not as complex as I once thought. Give her enough love and intimacy and her pain threshold will rise until she becomes quite blind to the majority of our flaws and inadequacies. That got most of the women in my audience nodding in agreement, but the guys were left scratching their heads. To be honest - she is quite simple. Give her some picked flowers, take her for a walk, hold her, have a tender moment with her at the end of the day, listen to her offloading when you get home from work, whisper sweet nothings into her ear, bring her breakfast in bed ... and that's almost all it takes for her to warmly respond with a purr of delight and a resurgence of her love. By that rule, its us guys who are complex.

So, on this mother's day, 2010, I salute our moms - they are worthy of honor. The nation, for all its achievements in business, on the battlefields or in the fields of human endeavour, owes it all to the cradle of life - the unsung heroism of a mother's arms.  

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net