Charles Connick was an unknown artist in Boston who brought his mother to live with
him. They spent a summer at Cape Cod where they met a Mr. Swift. All summer Mr. Swift
noticed how Connick honored his mother. He was so impressed that he decided to do
something unusual. He was rich and had given a large fund to put stained glass windows in a
church in Brooklyn. He called the architect and asked him to hire Connick for the job.
The architect had never heard of him. "Has he ever done a window?" he asked. "No,"
said Swift, "But he loves his mother." "That does not make him a window artist!" he
responded. "I know," said Swift, "But a man who loves his mother will do his best, so give
him a chance." So Connick was asked to submit drawings, and they were the best submitted.
Connick went on to become the greatest church window craftsman in America and Europe,
and he got his first assignment because he honored his mother.
God promised His people great reward if they honored their parents. The 5th
Commandment is, "Honor your father and mother so that you may live long in the land the
Lord your God is giving you." Having a Mother's Day each year is consistent with biblical
values. God Himself goes as far in honoring parents that He identifies Himself with both
fathers and mothers. The fatherhood of God we are most familiar with, but the fact is, the
Bible reveals also the motherhood of God. All 3 persons of the Godhead are in some way
identified with motherhood. In our text filled with motherhood analogy God the Father says
in verse 13, "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you..." God could find no
better comparison to convey His love for His people then the comforting love of mother.
In the very beginning of the Bible in Gen. 1:2 we read that the Spirit of God moved or
hovered over the waters. The Hebrew word used for the Holy Spirit hovering over the
waters ready to give birth to all creation is the same word used of the mother eagle that
hovers over her young. In Deut. 32:11 we read, "Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and
hovers over its young...." The Holy Spirit takes on a mother's image in creation. The
creation story begins with this mother image of God, and is not completed until this aspect of
God's image is put into human form, and God creates Eve the first mother who was made in
God's image.
This first act of creation made it possible for the history of man to continue, for the
existence of a mother gave man the power to create life. By means of a mother God also
carried out His plan of salvation, for it was by means of a mother that His Son came into the
world. This 3rd person of the Godhead was also not shy about using mother imagery to
describe His love for man. In Matt. 23:37 Jesus laments the fact that His people are so
rebellious that they will have to suffer judgment. He says, "...how often I have longed to
gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not
willing." All 3 persons of the Godhead knows the joys and sorrows of the motherhood, for
they experience both motherly love that is accepted and rejected. Nobody understands
motherhood better than God. He made motherhood a major factor in life because it is a
part of His nature.
When mother-love functions properly it is the nearest thing there is to the love of God.
Unfortunately, mother-love is a part of a fallen world where all is less than it was meant to
be. The result is a lot of malfunctioning motherhood. We read of it everyday. Mothers go
off and leave their children home alone for days and weeks at a time, and sometimes they die
of neglect. Mothers abuse their children and sometimes even throw them away like
unwanted trash. We do not have to rehearse the daily news, for all of are aware that there
are many imperfect examples. Mothers are the best channel of God's unconditional love,
but they do not always work the way God intends.
Mothers need help to be all they can be. Just giving birth to a baby does not make a
woman a wonderful mother. Paul makes this clear when he writes in Titus 2:4 that older
women, "Can train the younger women to love their husbands and children..." In other
words, love is not just automatic for either husbands or children. It is a learned value. The
capacity is inherent to some degree, but the application needs wisdom and guidance. Not
knowing this leads Christian mothers to have to endure a lot of unnecessary grief and guilt.
They assume that if they cannot love on a level that is expected of them they are bad
mothers.
Jacky Hertz in her book The Christian Mother tells of her ordeal. She had a baby boy,
and when he was handed to her in the hospital she did not feel toward this child what she did
toward her other children. She felt guilt and shame for this response. She kept this a secret,
but one day while out hanging up clothes she was overwhelmed with her doubts, and she
blurted out to her neighbor that she did not feel equal love to all her children. Her neighbor
confessed she had the same problem but never had the nerve to share it with anyone. She
said, "I was so sure I was freak that Bob and I decided not to have other children."
Jacky went on to discover that this was a fairly common problem for mothers. She
learned that mother love is not automatic. It has to be learned and developed. For three
months she faced up to her problem and no longer hid it. She prayed and worked at
developing a love for little Billy. She wrote this testimony: "At last after trying for seemed
like forever to build love out of nothing, I sat holding him once again in my arms trying to
burp him. Suddenly both his round grasping fists wound around my neck and hugged me
tightly. And for the first time since he was born, a rust of love poured through me. I hugged
him close, both believing and unbelieving, while one of his hands moved up to touch my wet
cheek."
Here was a mother who faced the reality of a defect in her mother love, and she worked
to overcome it, and she succeeded. Many do not recognize the need, but they just assume the
child is the problem, and so they spend their life abusing the child. Mother love is like all
other love, and it takes effort, struggle, and prayer to get love to work right. The Bible says
to love one another, but this does not just happen. It takes commitment to make it work.
Loving your enemies is even a harder task, and it takes a deeper commitment still.
We put love so often in the category of emotion, and we fail to realize it is a matter of
the intellect and will as well as of the emotions. We need to learn to make right choices to be
channels of love. It can be hard work, but it is the best kind of work you will ever get.
Mother love is the top of the line, and when God wants to reveal just how loving He can be
He uses mother love as His illustration. Here in Isaiah God has had to judge His people for
their rebellion. Judgment is everywhere, but God always looks to the day when He can cease
to punish and welcome His children back into His loving arms. That is always the bottom
line with God-the Prodigal Son returning and the father kissing him with joy and throwing a
party in celebration of his return. Sometimes it is the father image that Jesus uses, but He
gives equal time to the feminine. Just before the story of the lost son who is found He tells
the story of the lost coin and the woman who found it, and of how she told all of her
neighbors and there was a great rejoicing with her.
Here in Isa. 66:13 God says to His people who have suffered His judgment: "As a
mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you." God is impressed with motherhood, and
especially her ability to comfort her child. God says this is one of the areas where a mother
is a specialist. It is not without reason that you see a hurt child crying mommy and running
to be held in her lap. A child knows it can be a cruel world, but that there is a place of
comfort in the mother's arms. This is one of the major jobs of a mother. It is a God-like job,
for it makes the mother the source of good news. The Gospel of motherhood is that no
matter how awful a child you have been, and no matter how much punishment you deserve
and get, you will be comforted by your mother. If judgment is not followed by comfort, the
mother is not functioning as God intended, and she is not being an example of God's love.
Comfort is not an option. It is an obligation for successful motherhood.
A father is often in the judgment business, and he has to discipline children and lay down
the law. He represents the justice of God. But somebody has to represent the mercy of God,
and that is where mother comes in. The family is to experience a balance so that children see
the full nature of God. Mothers and fathers ought not to fight over their differences. They
are designed to be different. If both were into justice only, or if both were into mercy only,
there would be an unhealthy imbalance. Agree to disagree and let each do their own thing,
for a child needs both justice and mercy. A mother just has to be careful so that when a
disciplined child goes crying from dad to her that she does not give the child the impression
that dad is wrong or mean to discipline. A child needs to see punishment as valid, but still
feel the comfort of being forgiven and loved.
A mother spends a good portion of her life picking things up, and along with things it is
also her assignment to lift up the spirits of her children. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are
all called Comforters, but the comforter a child first comes to appreciate is mom. A teacher
of primaries had just given a lesson on the magnet, and in the follow up test this question was
asked: "My name starts with M, has 6 letters, and I pick up things. What am I?" The
teacher was surprised when half the class answered with the word mother. Kids know mom
is a picker-upper, but they probably don't realize that she does this, not just with clothes and
toys, but with their spirits as well. Studies show that the tone of the family is usually set by
the mother. If she is down, it is going to be a down day. If she is up, she will lift the rest of
the family up also.
Benjamin West, the world famous artist, claimed that it was his mother's kiss that made
him an artist. As a child he was on the floor with paper and paint all over the place, and he
realized he had made an awful mess, and he feared a severe scolding. But mom came in and
bent over and kissed him saying, "Some day you will be a great artist." That was the
comfort and encouragement that changed his whole life.
Often it is the case that a child will rebel and not follow the values the mother has
imparted. This has always been the case with God's children. It was the case with Israel
often, and the church as well. Rebellion is a major part of the history we see in the Bible.
But it is the positive side of God's nature that brings the rebel back. Paul says in Rom. 2:4
that it is God's kindness that leads to repentance. It is the memory of a mother's comfort
that leads many a rebel to come back home. Probably the greatest illustration ever is in the
life of John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace and many other famous hymns.
As a young man he rebelled and followed evil companions. He became a man of such
wicked ways, and he fell so low that he became the slave of a black woman in Western Africa.
He sank lower than the Prodigal Son, and he would have died for the aid of other slaves
when he became deathly ill. His saintly mother died when he was only 6, and so she was
spared the sorrow of knowing about his life of vice and shame. But she lived long enough to
fill his mind with divine truth. He could not forget her prayers and memory of her comfort.
Her love softened his hard heart, and when he thought he was going to go down in a sinking
slave ship he turned to the God of his mother and began a new chapter in his life. He became
one of the most famous clergymen in England in the 1700's. His influence is still being felt
around the world today. Mom only had him 6 years, but that was enough to make a world of
difference because she was a comforter.
Arthur Compton won the Nobel Prize in Physics back in the 1930's, and he became one
of the immortals in the world of science. As a boy of ten he had some strange ideas, and it
would have been easy to brush them off as silly nonsense. For example, he wrote an essay in
which he took issue with some experts on why some elephants were 3 toed and others 5 toed.
His mother said that when he showed it to her she had a hard time to keep from laughing.
But she knew he took the issue seriously, and so she encouraged him and worked on the issue
with him. Arthur said to her years later when he was famous, "If you had laughed at me that
day I think you would have killed my interest in research."
So much of what is accomplished in this world is accomplished by people who have been
comforted by their mother. The next best thing to being comforted by God is the comfort of
a mother. That may be the primary gift that a mother gives her child. Some unknown poet
wrote,
She could not paint, nor write, nor rhyme
Her footprints on the sands of time
,As some distinguished women do;
Just simple things of life she knew...
Like tucking little folks in bed,
Or soothing someone's aching head.
She was no singer, neither blessed
With any special loveliness
To win applause and passing fame;
No headlines ever blazed her name.
But, Oh, she was a shining light
To all her loved ones, day and night!
Her home her kingdom, she its queen;
Her reign was faithful, honest, clean,
Impartial, loving, just, to each,
And everyone she sought to touch.
Her name? Of course there is no other
In all the world...just MOTHER!
Mothers often feel guilty on Mother's Day because they are lauded, applauded, and
idealized to a level where most feel they can never arrive, and so they feel inadequate, and
far short of the ideal. But God gives all mothers an attainable ideal, for all mothers can
succeed in being a comfort to their children, and that can be a key ingredient in the lives of
their children. Mothers can make almost every mistake in the book and still come out
smelling like a rose if they never give up their role as comforter. Monica, the mother of St.
Augustine, has been used to illustrate this truth more than any other mother in history.
Her first mistake was in marrying a non-believer, and her husband Patricus mocked her
faith. She suffered much for her folly. It was not surprising that her son became a rebel and
lived a wild and sinful life. Monica never gave up on him, however, but continued to pray
for her prodigal son and encourage him with her love. It was a long hard battle, but this
rebel did come home to her and to her God. He repented and opened his heart to Christ,
and he became one of the most influential theologians in history. That was 1600 years ago
and his influence is still strong today. What if Monica would have given up on this rebel
child? History may have lost one of its brightest lights for exalting the name of Jesus.
God never gives up on His rebel children. He disciplines and He judges, but no matter
how severe His wrath, He always comes back to his mother-like nature, and He seeks to
comfort and give hope for the future. His fatherhood of justice is always balanced out by
His motherhood of mercy. The result is what we have in the book of Isaiah. It is a book
loaded with judgment, but it ends with comfort, hope, and good news, for God is love. In the
final analysis this means that the last word with God is, "As a mother comforts her child so
will I comfort you." So moms, let not the sun go down on your anger, but no matter what the
agonies of the day, make sure your children's last experience of any day is a mother's
comfort.
