Words are streaming this week on blogs, greeting cards and in conversations about mothers. Or maybe not. I don’t think I’m the only one who has stared wordlessly at the blank space inside a Mother’s Day card. It’s not that I have nothing to say it’s simply the impossibility of forming an adequate expression. And so most of us remain like children in our sentiments, writing a few seemingly shallow words because saying thank you appropriately would require hours or even days.
Which is why the task is difficult: the love of a mother, even though it is always flawed, is like the love of God; it is unending. How do you say thanks for that? “The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness,” said Honore de Balzac. God’s love is also a deep abyss which readily grants forgiveness the moment we humbly ask. Just like mom.
Our words of gratitude for her attempts to love, no matter how they are scribbled on the page, are cherished by moms. On a shelf in my study/work space is a box full of homemade and store bought cards, scraps of paper colored with toddler crayons, and little poems printed on construction paper, all from my kids which I will not throw away. I have other meaningless-to-anyone-else treasures saved simply because my children gave them to me.
God made us male and female, in His image. Mothers love because it is part of our god-likeness. Even with our imperfections, a mother’s love is worthy of gratitude for it is a gift from God.
