THERE'S NOTHING LIKE A MOTHER'S LOVE
Text: Isaiah 66:13
Isaiah 66:13 As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
A young, awkward boy grew up in southern California, plagued by a learning disability that in later years would be called dyslexia. But with his mother’s encouragement and admonishment, he became a strong and capable leader. Years later he was commanding thousands of your Americans in war. When General George S. Patton ( aka old “Blood and Guts”) found himself in North Africa grappling with the German Army, his thoughts on the battlefield were often of his mother. It was his mother, he often told colleagues, who ingrained in him the leadership qualities that he was to become famous for. His only regret was that he never expressed sufficient appreciation to her. “Darling Mama,” he began in a letter he wrote after her death, in words that pained him, “You are still very near. I never showed you in life the love I really felt nor my admiration for your courage.” (Quoted from http://www.familyfirst.net/pressroom/historicalmoms.htm). In the words of Paul Harvey, "… the ally, the constant companion who read to him what he could not read … who first taught our nation's greatest cavalryman how to ride. … The friend of his youth who recognized the first beginnings of greatness in a small boy---and prepared him for a world of men---was a woman. Mrs. George Patton, Senior. His mother." (Paul Harvey. The Rest Of The Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1997, p. 47). When Patton speaks of his mother's courage, it was as if he were expressing his gratitude beyond what he felt that any words could ever have conveyed. There was no doubt that Patton found comfort and motivation in his mother's courage. She nurtured him in body, mind and spirit in his youth. God's comforting nurture is a lot like that.
Isaiah 66:13 parallels the kind of help that God gives to the consolation and comfort that a mother gives to her children: "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem" (RSV). God takes care of us much like a mother takes care of her children. God provides for us beyond what we are able to fully comprehend! In the New Testament we have a wonderful picture that Jesus would tend to people much like a mother hen would tend to her young (Luke 13:34). Comfort involves compassion, encouragement and sympathy.
MOTHERS ARE COMPASSIONATE
When we want to show compassion toward someone, we want to help in the midst of his or her misfortune. Mothers are usually good at this quality. They know how to respond when a child is in need of comforting. I remember an episode when I was a child, I was helping my mother do the dishes. As I went to put one up, I dropped it and broke it. I felt badly about it. Yet, my mother consoled me. The grace of God is a lot like that.
They say that a woman's work is never done. That thought, where mothers are concerned, lends itself to the business of a mother's duties in caring for her family. There is always something that needs to be done and yet time is short. In Matthew 14:13-14, Jesus went to seek solitude for a few moments. But, when the crowds heard about his presence they followed Him and He had compassion on them and healed their sick. He did not relate to them as a nuisance. Mothers are created to have that kind of patience. Proverbs 31:10-31 describes the ideal wife and mother. In fact, Proverbs 31:28 says that "Her children arise and call her blessed" (NIV).
Mothers are also good at offering hope. In showing compassion to her children, a mother can lessen the intensity of the misery and/or grief of her children. Therefore, where a child might not have any hope or little hope, an ideal mother has the capacity not only to console, but also to strengthen hope. Our Lord, Jesus also demonstrated how He gave and gives hope. Consider Matthew 9:37: "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (NIV). When Jesus gave them the support and guidance that they needed, it gave them hope where it was lacking. A mother looks after her children and guides them much like a shepherd looks after his sheep.
MOTHERS ARE ENCOURAGING
Children often receive a confidence boost from their mothers when they are down. Wherever a child may have a sense of low self- esteem, a mother build that child's confidence through her words of encouragement. Enrico Caruso is but one example. As a child his mother encouraged his talent for singing when one of his teachers said that his singing sounded like the shutters in the wind. She worked hard to encourage him not with just her words, but also with her actions as she worked hard to pay for his lessons. She even went barefoot in order to be able to pay for his music lessons. He went on to become one of the world's greatest opera singers as an adult. There is no question that his mother had a hand in his success. (Dale Carnegie. How To Win Friends And Influence People. Revised Edition. New York: Pocket Books, 1981, p. 1981, p. 228).
Another thing that mothers sometimes do to encourage a child is to get him/her to focus on the positive. Obviously, a mother should not try to defuse a child's agony in such a way as to slight his or her feelings. No, what most all mothers do is to try to console their children. They console their children where they are hurting as they try to remove or relieve the pain from thwarted outcomes of what they had wanted to happen. Then, they can help their children with encouraging words. This is a process that we call "cheering up."
The Bible says, "A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit" (Proverbs 15:13 NIV). Mothers try to show compassion to their children to help heal their hearts when they are broken. A child's heart can be broken when he/she is smarting from the insults of others or from the thwarted outcomes of what they had wanted to happen.
MOTHERS ARE SYMPATHETIC
One of the things that we think about when it comes to sympathy is support. In his first letter to the Church at Corinth, the apostle Paul said something that pertains to sympathy: "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it" (I Corinthians 12:26 NIV). Paul was talking about the Body of Christ when he said that. It also relates to the family. Mothers have an instinct for this kind of support. Henry Ward Beecher once said, "The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom".
There is a Jewish proverb that says, "God could not be everywhere, and so He made mothers." Of course, we know that God is not limited because He is infinite. But, nevertheless, this proverb speaks about the kind of support that God gives us. In fact, just as we look at the life and witness of Moses and declare that he was a "type of Christ", we can look at mothers through the metaphor within Isaiah 66:13 and say that in a way, mothers are examples of and a "type" for godliness and compassion. Borrowing from Paul's thoughts in I Corinthians 12:26, we could say that when a child is hurting, the child's mother hurts with him/her. Just think once again about the mother of Enrico Caruso and how she was sympathetic and supportive of him.
Another thing that we might think about when it comes to sympathy is how to be in accord. It is here that we think about the values that our mothers tried to instill in us when we being nurtured as growing children. It is here that I am referring to the quality of being in harmony with the way that our mothers reared us in the examples of godliness that they bestowed upon us. Philippians 2:2 says in the King James Version, "Fulfill ye my joy, that ye may be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." Obviously, Paul was talking about not only living a godly life after the example of Christ, but also a godly life in harmony with each other.
There is the story of a young man who went off to college and defied some of the values of his rearing that he had acquired in a Christian home. He had pornographic pictures on the walls. One day his mother came to visit him. She saw his walls but said nothing. Instead, she sent him a picture of herself and asked him to hang it up on his wall. The next time she went to see him the other pictures had been removed. And her picture was there hanging on the wall. She asked him about it and he replied, "You see mother, I could not have those pictures beside yours. They would be out of place." (A. Naismith. 1200 Notes, Quotes and Anecdotes. Great Britain: Pickering Paperbacks, 1988, p. 193). This story backs up the truth behind Proverbs 22:6: "Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it" (NIV). When mothers raise their children well, "training them in the way that should go", they give their children roots that are not compatible with a worldly lifestyle in the "far country".
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
