This Sunday, May 14th, much of the world will pause to celebrate Mother’s Day. While not every country celebrates mothers on the second Sunday in May, more than fifty countries worldwide observe the holiday and as far as we’re concerned it’s a day worth celebrating.
Typically, when we think of mothers we consider those who mother in the physical sense. The image that comes to mind is of a woman giving birth, sacrificing for and serving her child for the next several decades to usher them into adulthood. Certainly this image is a true one. Where would we be without those who embrace the physical call of motherhood? Biblically we see women such as Eve, Mary, and Elizabeth sacrificing themselves to bring life into the world- life that has the potential to change all of human history. Where would we be if Mary said no to the sacrifice of motherhood? Where would we be if our own mothers had said no?
However, motherhood is not merely something that some women do; it’s core to the very design of femininity- and something the world desperately needs. Women give birth to children yes, but as they embrace their unique call as life bearers they give birth in many other ways as well: to books, businesses, relationships, homes, ministries, community, the list is truly endless.
To be a woman is to bring life into every room, every job, every relationship that she touches. We look at Queen Esther of the Bible. Though she did not bear physical children that we know of, she brought life to the entire kingdom of Israel through her courage and sacrifice. In doing so did she not show the heart of a mother, laying down her own life for those who needed her?
Mothers are also fiercely protective. We call her a mother bear for a reason. When women arise in their unique call of motherhood, the world is better for it. Women will put themselves on the line for the weak, the vulnerable, any and all who need her feminine strength. Deborah in the book of Judges is a prime example of this kind of motherhood. She arises, a mother to Israel- not a judge, a soldier, a ruler, or even a leader though she certainly was all of these things.
No, she chooses to define herself for her mother’s heart. The kind of fierce love that lies in the heart of a mother sees the desperate need around her and adopts it heart and soul, refusing to remain silent. Where would the world be without this kind of mother: the Mother Theresa’s of the world who see a need and meet it with love over and over again?
On this Mother’s Day we see and honor mothers everywhere, those nurturing life both physically and spiritually. The global church desperately needs women to arise as mothers: to see the desperate need of a hurting world and adopt that pain as their own. We need mothers in every nation to arise in motherhood and bring life to dead places, nurturing both physical and spiritual life in the children of her body as well as the children of this lost and broken world. Mothers: we honor you, we need you, and we love you. Happy Mother’s Day from Global Catalytic Ministries, and the church around the world.
