We equate mothers with active, giving love. We use the word mother as a verb, as in, “Look at that cat mothering her kittens.” Mothers who cease exhibiting active and giving love are unofficially stripped of that title by on-lookers, as in, “She’s not fit to be called a mother.” Fair or not, realistic or not, our expectations of mother-love are high and border on God-like quality.
Now, no human being can be God. Even the most loving mother will have her faults, but mothers have historically performed some act or made some sacrifice as to be an earthly example of divine love. Mother-love, in its ideal, can help us understand God-love.
A Personal Love
Mother-love is personal. There is an immediate bond between mother and child. There are stories from large hospitals with large nurseries that there may be eight or ten newborn babies crying and yet many a mother can recognize if her baby is one of them! Is that not like God-love? We are told that He will hear our cries. (Exodus 22:23.)
It has been reported that mothers could recognize their babies just by touching the back of their hands. A study was done with mothers who had been caring for their newborn babies for only one week. Blindfolded, they were asked to feel the backs of the hands of three infants. With 70 percent accuracy they were able to pick out their own baby!
There is no touch like a mother’s! In the family it is the mother who kisses a hurt to make it go away. It is her cool hand that soothes a fevered brow.
God-love is a very personal love also. With God we are more than a number, more than just another face in the crowd. Jesus told us, in Matthew 10:30, that He even knows the number of hairs on our head! Jesus’ touch healed the sick and the lame. His touch brought sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. When God-love touches you, it will affect eternally your life. “It is as the Spirit of God touches the soul that the powers of the soul are quickened and man becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus.” The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, vol. 3, 1074.
Does Not Quit
Mother-love is a love that does not quit. A mother took her six-year-old boy into a doctor’s crowded waiting room. As they waited their turn, he began to ask her all kinds of questions. In half an hour he managed to cover almost every subject known to humanity. To the wonder of all the others sitting in the room, his mother answered each question carefully and patiently. Inevitably, he got around to God. As the other people listened to his relentless “hows” and “whys,” it was plain to see by the expressions on their faces that they wondered: “How does she stand it?” But when she answered her son’s next question, she answered theirs too. “Why,” he asked, “doesn’t God ever get tired and just stop?”
“Because,” she replied after a moment’s thought, “God is love; and love never gets tired.”
Witness the patient, tireless love of mother-love and you witness God-love. God-love never gets tired. God-love never quits.
Protector
“How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings . . . .” Matthew 23:37. The story is told of a man who was looking over the charred remains of his farm after a terrible fire. He noticed a lump of something in the barnyard that was still moving. He kicked it and from underneath came a little chick. That mother hen had faced the fire and had given her life to protect the chick. That is how God described Himself, “How often would I have gathered thy children . . . .”
One of the best-known examples of a mother’s desire to protect her child is given in Exodus 2:1–10. What mother-love was exhibited by the mother of Moses, that she would hide him away for three months to preserve his life then place him in an “ark of bulrushes,” trusting God to watch over him!
God-love is evidenced in His desire to protect us. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, [He is] my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, [and] from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth [shall be thy] shield and buckler.” Psalm 91:1–4.
Mom’s Law
In their mother-love, mothers seem to take on an extra-ordinary wisdom about many subjects. Surely many of us remember things we were told, such as:
- Medicine: If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they’re going to stay that way!
- Humor: When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don’t come running to me.
- Our Roots: Do you think you were born in a barn?
- Anticipation: Just wait till your father gets home!
- Receiving: You are going to get it when we get home.
- Nutrition: If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up.
- Maturing: When you get my age, you’ll understand.
But more importantly, may we remember the godly admonitions given in mother-love. We are told, in Proverbs 6:20 to “forsake not the law of thy mother.”
Recently an essay called “The Meanest Mother in the World” caught my eye. In part, it read: “I had the meanest mother in the world. While other kids had candy for breakfast, I had to eat my cereal and toast. While other kids had cakes and candy for lunch, I had a sandwich. As you can guess, my supper was different than other kids’ supper too. My mother was so mean that she insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You’d think we were in a prison or something. She had to know who our friends were and what we were doing. I am ashamed to admit this, but my mother actually had the nerve to break the child labor laws. She made us work. We had to wash dishes, make the beds, and learn how to cook and clean. I think my mother must have stayed awake at night thinking of things for us to do. And she insisted that we tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. She never let me get away with anything. By the time we were teenagers, my mother was even wiser, and our lives became even more unbearable. She would embarrass us by insisting that our friends come to the door instead of honking the car horn for us to come running. And she always insisted that we be home early on school nights and never let us stay out late on weekends like all our friends. Mother was so mean that she would not let us date at the mature age of 13 or 14, like so many of our friends. She kept telling us that there was a lot of time, and that we needed to grow up a bit first. Mother really raised a bunch of squares. None of us was arrested for shoplifting or busted for dope. And who do we have to thank for this? You’re right, our mean, old mother.”
Oh, for more such “mean” mothers! To obey our mother’s godly teaching is to honor her as commanded in Exodus 20:12.
Just as the writer of the above essay benefited from following his mother’s instruction and laws, we will benefit from God-love as we daily obey His Law. “The principles of God’s law will dwell in the heart, and control the actions. It will then be as natural for us to seek purity and holiness, to shun the spirit and example of the world, and to seek to benefit all around us, as it is for the angels of glory to execute the mission of love assigned them.” Sons and Daughters of God, 51.
Sacrificial Love
“You have probably heard of the sad story of the mother who, with her husband and child, attempted to cross the Green Mountains in midwinter. Their progress was arrested by night and a storm. The husband went for help and lost his way in the darkness and the drifted snow, and was long in returning. The mother felt the chill of death coming upon her, and she bared her bosom to the freezing blast and the falling snow, that she might give all that remained of her own life to save that of her child. When the morning came, the living babe was found wrapped in the mother’s shawl, vainly striving with smiles and with a babe’s pretty art to arrest the attention of the mother’s fixed and frozen eye, and wondering why she did not awaken from her sleep.
“Here is seen love stronger than death, that binds the mother’s heart to her child.” This Day With God, 230.
Such mother-love is surpassed only by the God-love that sent His only Son that we may have life eternal. “We are not to entertain the idea that God loves us because Christ has died for us, but that He so loved us that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for us.” The Signs of the Times, May 30, 1895.
Welcome Home
The story is told of a godly mother in London whose daughter had run off into a life of sin. This mother went to her pastor with a burdened heart, not knowing what to do. Her pastor asked her to go home and get as many photographs of herself that she could find and bring them to him. When she returned with the photos, he wrote at the bottom of each one this simple message: “Come Home.” He then placed them all around the city in the places of sin where he thought the girl might go.
One night the wayward girl entered a bar only to find a picture of her mother and the message, “Come Home.” When she read the message, she knew her mother meant it. She knew her mother loved her and would forgive her.
She made her way back home, and as she opened the door, her mother greeted her with her arms outstretched. The girl’s mother cried out, “The door has never been locked. I have been looking for you, watching for you, and praying for you.” What unconditional mother-love!
God also desires us to “Come Home.” Ellen White wrote: “The great God, whose glory shines from the heavens, and whose divine hand upholds millions of worlds, is our Father. We have only to love Him, trust in Him, as little children in faith and confidence, and He will accept us as His sons and daughters, and we shall be heirs to all the inexpressible glory of the eternal world. All the meek will He guide in judgment, the meek will He teach His way. If we will walk in obedience to His will, learn cheerfully and diligently the lessons of His providence, by and by He will say: Child, come home to the heavenly mansions I have prepared for you.” Testimonies, vol. 4, 653. What marvelous God-love!
Essential
Mothers come in all different shapes and sizes, but they all come with mother-love! It is essential for us to recognize that this mother-love can give us a glimpse of God-love—love that is personal; love that never quits; love that is patient; love that protects; love that welcomes us home.
Anna Schultz writes from her home near Sedalia, Colorado. She may be contacted by e-mail at JSchu67410@aol.com.