Introduction:
This is a classic Mother’s Day Calvin & Hobbes comic strip. Calvin is standing by his mother’s bed. "Hey, Mom! Wake up. I made you a Mother’s Day card." "My, how sweet of you." she says. "I did it all by myself. Go ahead & read it."
She begins to read, "I was going to buy a card with hearts of pink & red. But then I thought I’d rather spend the money on me instead. It’s awfully hard to buy things when one’s allowance is so small. So I guess you’re pretty lucky I got you anything at all. Happy Mother’s Day. There, I’ve said it. Now I’m done. So how about getting out of bed & fixing breakfast for your son." Signed, "Calvin."
"I’m deeply moved,” said his mother. "Did you notice the part about my allowance?" He asked.
Only a Mom could love a son like Calvin.
Although a mother’s love is legendary, recent news items have shaken us with the images of mothers gone terribly wrong. One mom in White Plains, NY left her two bickering daughters on the side of the road
The most horrific true crime stories are those in which a mother harms her child, instead of offering love and protection. In fact, they are so shocking, stories of mothers murdering or making their children ill, capture our attention.
“Parental hazard carries no gender distinction: Mothers kill their children with nearly the same frequency as fathers. From 1976 to 1999, 30 percent of murdered children under 5 were killed by their mothers and 31 percent by their fathers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.”
Citation: Toufexis, Anastasia, “WHY JENNIFER GOT SICK” Time.com, Monday, Apr. 29, 1996, November 15, 2007 – cited by lisaj66 and posted on November 15, 2007 at 10:10 pm. (http://fictionway.com/2007/11/15/murdering-moms/)
Who loves you more than Mom?
A teacher was trying to teach her class a lesson about fractions. After the lesson, she tested one of the boys who was in a large family. Johnny, she said, “There are 6 people in your family. Your mom bakes a pie and she cuts it up for you, what fraction of the pie will you receive?”
Johnny, thought for a minute and said, “One-fifth.” The teacher said, “Now, remember there are 6 people in your family, how big would your piece of pie be.” And again, the boy said, “One-fifth.” The teacher said, “No, you don’t understand fractions.” And Johnny respectfully said, “You don’t understand my mom. She would have said that she didn’t want any.”
Who loves you more than Mom?
Frederick Douglass grew up as a slave in Maryland in the early nineteenth century. He escaped and became one of the century’s leading abolitionists, who fought to end slavery forever. He writes in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave about being torn away from his mother’s love:
My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who lived about 12 miles from my home.
Nonetheless, young Frederick’s mother several times found ways to see her son:
She made her journeys to see me in the night, traveling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her day’s work. She was a field hand, and a whipping was the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise…. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone.
How amazing is the power of a mother’s love. Frederick Douglass’s mother worked all day long in the scorching heat of the tobacco fields, and then, when her body was crying for rest, she walked 12 miles in the dark to see her son. After comforting him and holding him as he fell asleep, she had to walk another 12 miles back. She gave up a night’s sleep. She risked getting a severe whipping if she were discovered, or if she got home late. But nothing could keep this mother from her son.
Citation: Kevin Miller, Vice President, Resources, Christianity Today International
Who loves you more than Mom?
Len Sweet in Postmodern Pilgrims recounts a letter a physician wrote to a church-related magazine:
Today I visited an eight-year-old girl dying of cancer. Her disease and its treatment disfigured her body. She was in almost constant pain. As I entered her room, I was overcome immediately by her suffering—so unjust, unfair, unreasonable. Even more overpowering was the presence of her grandmother lying in bed beside her with her huge body embracing this precious, inhuman suffering.
I stood in awe, for I knew I was on holy ground…. the suffering of innocent children is horrifying beyond words. I will never forget the great, gentle arms and body of this grandmother. She never spoke while I was there. She was holding and participating in suffering that she could not relieve, and somehow her silent presence was relieving it. No words could express the magnitude of her love.
Citation: Leonard Sweet, Postmodern Pilgrims (Broadman & Holman, 2000), p.16; submitted by Merle Mees, Topeka, Kansas
Who loves you more than Mom?
On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people. One survived: a four-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia.
News accounts say when rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia’s name.
Cecelia survived because, even as the plane was falling, Cecelia’s mother, Paula Chican, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go.
Nothing could separate that child from her mother’s love—neither tragedy nor disaster, neither the fall nor the flames that followed, neither height nor depth, neither life nor death.
Citation: Bryan Chapell, In the Grip of Grace (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992) © 2002 PreachingToday.com / Christianity Today, International
Who loves you more than Mom?
As deep and unconditional as a mother’s love can be it has limits. Eventually, every mom will die. Too many of us know that grief.
Key Question:
Who could love you more than Mom?
Text:
God says, “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!” (Isaiah 49:15)
reveal text printed on picture of Jesus’ hand being nailed to the Cross
God says, “I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:16a)
Thesis:
There is only one person who loves you more than your Mom does – God himself.
Have you experienced the power of God’s love recently? Would you like to feel the only love that can be deeper than a mother’s love?
Let me make a few suggestions that may help get you started.
1. Pray – ask God to love you.
2. Meditate on the Cross. Read from the Bible about what Jesus did for you when He died there.
3. Bathe your spirit with loving music about God.
4. Spend time alone with God.
5. Give your love away to someone who needs to be loved.
RESPONDING TO GOD:
Let’s pray now.
Lord Jesus, you proved on the cross that no one can love us more than God does – not even our mothers. Holy Spirit, make our Heavenly Father’s love as real to us as the ground we stand on. Flood our lives with his immeasurable love until it saturates our hearts and minds. Then make it splash out on everyone around us. Amen.
