Did you know there are eight scripture references that tell us to honor our father and mother? Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16, Matthew 19:19, Matthew 15:4, Mark 7:10, Mark 10:19,
Luke 18:20 and Ephesians 6:2. It is also the fifth of the Ten Commandments.
Here is what Deuteronomy says:
“Honor thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God has commanded thee, that thy day might be prolonged and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord, thy God giveth thee.”
In May we celebrate Mother’s day to honor our mothers so I chose to tell you a little about my mother. She was small in stature, about 5’1” tall and maybe 100 pounds, with dark hair. She married my dad when she was 19 and still in high school. She would have graduated that May but became pregnant very soon after the wedding.
Nine months after the wedding the first baby came then the second came 15 months later. The third was 17 months later and the fourth was 18 months after that. Then suddenly 13 months after the fifth child arrived. Then 2 years later child #6 arrived. A total of 3 boys and 3 girls.
Mama was always cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and all the things that mothers do. She also made sure we had prayers and a bedtime story every night and that we got to church every Sunday.She made wonderful fried chicken and homemade rolls on our wood burning stove. We had no electricity, running water or gas, our drinking water was laddled from a bucket and we washed our hands in a basin by the front door.
In 1942 the whole family moved to Wichita and we now had electricity, a gas stove that the burners lit when you turned a knob, an ice box that made its own ice, and running water so you could take a bath anytime you wanted and could stay in the water until you turned into a prune.
Mama started working at Boeing in support of the war effort. Everyone who could do anything was working at one of the airplane plants in Wichita. Boeing, Boesch, Cessna, Lear, Douglas, Swallow.
Then when the war was over we moved to a farm, where mom milked the cows and fed the chickens, while still handling the cooking and cleaning.
She lived until she was almost 91 and was still making bread from scratch. She was always working and caring for others.
She was a wonderful mother all the days of her life.
-Mary Michalek, on behalf of the Prayer Group
A Pastoral Response from an observant father.
Mary, thank you for sharing this precious glimpse of your mother with us. When I read this I see a story of care and strength, of perseverance and love. In the Bible we encounter God presented as both Father and Mother, here are some examples of the maternal language God uses for God’self:
Deuteronomy 32:11
“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.” (God as a nurturing and protective mother eagle)
Deuteronomy 32:18
“You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.”
(God as one who gives birth)
Isaiah 49:15
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (God as a faithful nursing mother)
Isaiah 66:13
“As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”
(God as a comforting mother)
Hosea 13:8
“Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them [that have harmed you]…”
(God as a fiercely protective mother bear)
Matthew 23:37 & Luke 13:34
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
(Jesus expressing God’s longing with hen-and-chicks imagery)
…and there are more, Isaiah and Job both contain mother-coded language for God, and even one of the great titles for God in the Bible is El Shaddai
Genesis 17:1 – “I am El Shaddai; walk before me, and be blameless.”
El Shaddai tends to be translated as something like “God Almighty” or “The All-Sufficient God,” but when you break the words apart into their most basic parts the image that we get could be translated as “The many-breasted God.”
God identifies as the El Shaddai, the God who has enough to sustain all of God’s beloved children, and indeed the whole creation, by giving of God’self. This El Shaddai God mothers the world providing sustaining love without end.
Often folks will talk about the idea of motherhood as something primal, with phrases like “Mama-Bear” and as a father, I see that instinctual, powerful, primal maternal instinct in how my wife looks after our children – but there is also the power of creation at work in the formation of every new life and the bringing together of every kind of family, there is the compassion and provision necessary for the rearing up of children and holding the family together, and there is the animating love that makes it all possible, love that flows from the very ground of all being, from the very heart of GOD.
To parent is human, to mother is divine.
Happy Mothers’ Day to all,
-Pastor Jeremy