God had said --
I need someone to
get up at midnight and scoop the most fragile of humanity close to her
warmth and rock though she can hardly stand and nourish though she’s
mostly sleep-starved and change the diaper and the sheets and the leaked
on, leaked through, and leaked down clothes though she’ll have to
change them in the morning and next week and that won’t change for
years.
So God made a Mother.
That God had said I need somebody with a strong heart.
Strong enough for toddler tantrums and teenage testing, yet broken enough to fall on her knees and pray, pray, pray.
Someone who knows that in every hard
place is exactly where you extend grace, who looks a hopeful child in
the eye and says yes, even though she knows every yes means a mess but this is how you bless, who has the courage to keep letting go because she's holding on to Me.
So God made a mother.
God said I need somebody who can shape a soul and find shoes on Sunday mornings and get grass stains out of Levis.
And make dinner out of nothing and
do it again 79,678 times, and keep kids off the road and out of the
toilet and in clean underwear and mainly alive though she’s mainly
losing her mind and will put in an 80 hour week by Wednesday night and
just do one more load of laundry.
And one more sink of crusted burnt pots.
And keep on going another eighty hours because raising generations matters and weaving families matters and tying heart strings matters and these people here matter.
So God made a mother…
It had to be somebody who could comb back pigtails and tie up skates just-right tight.
Who could pretend she remembered
algebra and how to get home from here and that really, she was just
fine, that it might just be the silly onions.
Somebody who would run for the
catch, jump on a trampoline and play one fierce game of soccer and not
give a thought to all those labors and her weak pelvic floor. Somebody
who’d stay up late with a science project that never ends, who’d get up
early for the game in the rain, somebody who’d wave at the door until
the taillights were out of sight and still be smiling brave.
So God made a mother.
It had to be somebody willing to keep loving when it made no sense because that’s what love does.
Somebody who knew that patience is a willingness to suffer.
That joy is always possible because there is always, always something to be thankful for.
And that life is not an emergency
but a gift -- so just. slow. down. There are children at play here and
we don’t want anyone to get hurt and the hurry makes us hurt.
Somebody willing to feed and lead, lay down her life and pick up her cross, give of her time because they have her heart. Someone who knows that we all blow it — and what matters is what we then do after.
Someone who could humble herself into the tender sorry that covers a multitude of sins.
And who’d bow her head at night over
the girl asleep with the doll in the crook of her arm — and thank her
Father for this hidden life that’s the turning gear for the a whole
spinning world.
So God made a mother.
I am so thankful for my children. The journey of this life with them by my side has been nothing short of amazing. They teach me, guide me, and love me. I stumble and fall and they give me reason to dust myself off and get back up again, God gave me the ultimate gift when he blessed my life with these two. So this year on Mother's Day I am celebrating you both!
Thank you Ann for this amazing
post. After a tough week, this really touched me. Please read Ann's post it in its
entirety here. She has included her own photos and her commentary on God Made a Farmer as well.
