WHO WILL RESPOND?
The following is an essay on motherhood from my daughter, Evangeline.
WHO WILL RESPOND?The power of your mothering is not in whether we feed your children organic, subterranean extractions of pure milk, from the extinct koi koi nuts secluded in the Andes mountains, whether we read them Dr. Seuss or Bill Peet, or whether we take them on expeditions around the world but this . . .
That we feed them Jesus!
The Jesus of selfless love!
The real Jesus!
Alive!
All that He embodies!
Jesus with skin on and read more in your life than the brightly colored picture books of Bible stories!
Jesus, who is not just a cultural backsplash to our home and mothering but is the volcano who forms the land mass of our lives!
Erupting daily to a power that WE ALLOW to change our selfish lives, and family’s lives, to live like we really do know this Hero in the atmospheres of our mothering!
The true extent of our mothering is not whether we curdled our yoghurt, dressed our children perfectly, or crossed off all our boxes, but that they knew His Presence.
This joyful overwhelming love coming out of us, no matter what the circumstance!
There is nothing else!
True Mothering is the Heart of Jesus!
It’s the first glimpse of the Gospel!
The First Glimpse and The Last Farewell!
Jesus, the author of the universe, yet born of a mother, lying in her arms, a baby, about to change the universe!
Then . . . His last words. The farewell speech if you will.
He enters Jerusalem, the city of the world, to break the curse forever!
Does He take the form of a king? A soldier? A rioter? A revolutionary world changer?
Yes!
A World Changer with the anointing of a mother! “Oh that I could gather you under my wings as a mother gathers her babies.”
And again, on his last agonizing breath He suddenly defies the tormenting pain of death by cruxifixction!
What was happening? Was this the moment the disciples prayed He would be delivered?
A movement . . . and He starts to stand back up!
The universe waits with bated breath and all wonder at this last heroic act. What? He heaves through excruciating pain against the nails in his feet! The crowd press in to listen!
He looks over the crowd and finds her!
His mother!
This man . . . this King, this Savior, with one final act to heal the hum of humanity does something so beautiful, so healing, yet so simple that the world missed it!
What could be the plan of God that was so simple, yet so profound that it was the last thing He did?
He gave a mother!
“John! Look! She will be a mother to you!”
His last hope and eternal smile is giving a mother!
Then He cries . . . “It is finished!”
The women who decide to mother the spirit of Jesus in the ones around her are so rare, they are to be looked for, sought for, shared, cloned, adopted, multiplied, and revealed!
Mothering is the most powerful movie ever played!
The comeback to all creation crying out . . .
Feed me! Love me! Nurture me!
It never leaves!
It never turns off!
It never stops!
The hum of humanity never gives up crying MOTHER ME!
But culture drowns it!
Yet can you hear it still screaming?
Love me! Feed me! Nurture Me!
So culture screams even louder in the women’s ears . . .
“Me first!”
But wait! There in the darkness a woman picks up a sound . . . the sound of drums . . .
No! It’s the sound of heartbeats in her ears!
One heartbeat!
A few heartbeats!
A hundred heartbeats!
A thousand heartbeats!
A hundred thousand heartbeats!!!
She hears the cries from the belly of her womb!
The mother rises. The Spirit of God has found one!
The heavens are teetering on the edge of their seats!
‘Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!’
And then . . . Yeeeees!
She pulls her sword out and visibly slays her selfish life for the epochal cry of all time and once more the gospel is shown!
The flame of hope is released again to society!
The Deborah’s! The Mary’s! The Mother Teresa’s!
The one whose name is not known but rises to the sound!
And she fights too!
She fights against the drum of that other heartbeat!
That endlessly tiring ol’ sound, her own voice, mimicking the words “Serve me, give me!”
To try and mother oneself is to lose the image of the Gospel through self-indulgence! Therefore, you can never mother yourself! You can only mother others!
Vangibabe.
EVANGELINE JOHNSON
Photo from Etsy.
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