The Greatest Mother Alive

"But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." Gal. 4:26

I would like to first say, "Happy Mother’s Day" to all the mothers present here this morning. "Mother’s Day" is a very special time for me personally, because, I can not think of anyone else (except for Lisa) that I love more than my own mother. Dads, I know you are very hard workers, and faithful providers, and good fathers, but I have never seen a man that could ever labor as hard as giving birth. You mothers amaze me, how strong you are. You can carry heavy children, groceries, love, burdens, etc... Mothers, I believe you deserve more than just one day a year to be honored.

On the second Sunday in May each year, many people honor motherhood by celebrating Mother’s Day. Mothers are especially honored this day by many families in various parts of the world and in lots of churches.

First to suggest Mother’s Day in the United States was Julia Ward Howe, who came up with the idea in 1872.

Howe was from Boston, and her suggestion was followed by celebrations in Massachusetts for a number of years on June 2.

The day, in addition to honoring mothers, was also dedicated to peace.

Earlier, in England, a special day called Mothering Sunday was celebrated in mid-Lent. Similar celebrations had also been held in Yugoslavia and other European countries for many years.

The introduction of a formal Mother’s Day developed slowly. A Kentucky schoolteacher named Mary Towels Saseen started organizing Mother’s Day celebrations in her state in 1887. Frank Hering of South Bend, IN, launched a regional campaign in 1904 and Anna Jarvis of Grafton, WV, launched a national campaign in 1907.

It was Jarvis who chose the second Sunday in May as the date for the holiday, and she also started the custom of wearing carnations: a white one if the person’s mother is dead, a brightly-colored one if she is living.

At the meeting of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, in 1912, a delegate from Jarvis’ church in West Virginia introduced a resolution officially recognizing Anna as the founder of Mother’s Day, and suggested that the special day be observed nationally each May.

National recognition for Mother’s Day finally came on May 9, 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution recommending that Congress and the executive branch of the government observe Mother’s Day each year.

The following year, Wilson was authorized by Congress to officially proclaim Mother’s Day as an annual national observance. And since then, many other countries have followed the tradition.

The first mother ever mentioned in "God’s Word" is Eve. She was made by God, out of the side of Adam. Gen. 2:21-23, "21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

She received her name from her husband. *Gen. 3:20, "And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living." Someone once said, "God made woman from man’s side, and ever since, man has had a pain in his side."

*Eve is known as the mother of the human race. Had Eve not given birth to her son Cain, we would probably not be in existence today. We can all trace our ancestry back to Eve.

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Let me call your attention to the words of our text. Gal. 4:26, "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."

*Eve is referred to as the mother of the living. Paul writes in our text referring to Jerusalem (The Church of God that contains all who are washed by the blood of the Lamb and living to the light of the Scripture that they have,) that She is "the mother of us all." What a glorious and beautiful portrayal of the Church of God. She is a mother. She is pure, spotless, holy, glorious, nurturing, fertile and loving. She is the "Bride of Christ."

Eph. 5:23-32, " 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church."