Mother's Open Arms Of Love

Mother’s Open Arms of Love

I Samuel 1:24-28

Matthew 23:37-39

Companies that do well are the ones that are able to brand their products. A well-developed brand is recognized worldwide.

Nike – check mark

Disney – round shape with two big ears

Apple – Apple with bite

McDonalds – Golden Arches

What brand would you put on a Christian Mother? “Love” – The branding for Christians is Love. John 13:34-35, Jesus said, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

In Matthew 23:37-39, Jesus gives us a picture of God’s love and the love of mothers for their children. Jesus was standing on a hill overlooking Jerusalem and declared to the people: “How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.”

A man was boarding an airplane one day. As he came on board, he happened to notice that the head of the plane’s cockpit flight crew was a woman. That was no problem. Still, it was a new experience for him.

As he found his seat, he noticed three persons sitting immediately behind him. One was a young boy about six or seven years of age. Next to him was a man in his early thirties. And next to the man was a woman in her early sixties.

The man could not help overhearing the conversation among these three persons as the plane made final plans for departure from the gate. It was not long before he realized that they were the woman pilot’s family. The boy was her son. The man was her husband. And the older woman was her mother. Suddenly he realized why the family was on the plane. This was the first time the woman pilot had been the head of a flight crew! They were there to honor her promotion.

The plane taxied down the runway and poised itself for takeoff. The engines began to roar, and the plane gained speed quickly. Within seconds they were airborne. As the plane began to ascend the bank to the south, the six-year-old boy began to applaud! "Way to go, Mom. Way to go!"

On Mother’s Day Sunday we say to all mothers, “Way to go, Mom, Way to go!” Our mothers deserve all the praise we can give them.

Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel was a mother who loved God with all her heart. Her arms were outstretched in love toward God and her family. In desperation she prayed to have a son and God heard here prayer. When Samuel was about 3 his mother took him to the temple and dedicated him to serve the Lord the rest of his life.

I was privileged to grow up in a family with a mother who loved God with all her heart. We were a poor family. The majority of the people in our small town of Gypsum, Kansas were poor. Most did not have indoor bathrooms. Many did not have hot-water tanks. We heated bathwater in large pans on the stove. Many like us heated one or two rooms with coal stoves.

I was blessed because I had a mother who demonstrated open arms of love to my older sister and to me. My mother was like the illustration Jesus used to express God’s loved, like a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings to love and protect.

During the critical teen years of my life my parents were separated, and for all practical purposes, a single parent raised me. During my lifetime my mother arms were always out stretched in love to her family.

I want to draw a parallel between the mother Hannah and my mother.

I. Hannah Way A Woman of Prayer

Year by year Hannah went with her husband, Elkanah to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord at the Tabernacle. I Samuel 1:9, “Once when they ere at Shiloh, Hannah went to the Tabernacle after supper to pray to the Lord.”

My mother, like Hannah, prayed about everything. She prayed for wisdom in raising her children and she had a prayer list for relatives and friends. When my sister and I gave our mother a hard time she would pray. One time my sister and I were at each other and having a brawl in our back yard. Mother tried to get us to quit but to no avail. She turned her back on us and went into the house in tears. We went in and found her in the front room on the sofa with a cover over her head praying for us. Her prayers made an impact on our lives.