Spiritual Motherhood
Motherhood is ordered towards the flourishing of our children, body and soul.
Look at all these flowers on my kitchen counter this Mother’s Day morning, absolutely filling my heart with joy:
The tulips are for me, picked out by SuperHusband on his Costco run Friday afternoon, in honor of Mother’s Day. The rest? My high school senior was in her school musical this weekend (not the star — just a stage hand pulled in as last-minute cast), and these are flowers she received from friends, family and the school honoring its graduating seniors.
I couldn’t ask for a better bouquet of what motherhood is. I love the tulips, and I wouldn’t want only someone else’s flowers in my kitchen today — I am a normal human who appreciates a little appreciation — but look what that motherhood has wrought! That is something.
When you feel your baby kick for the first time, when you hold it in your arms for the first time . . . there’s that amazement. I did this? A whole human being who wouldn’t be here right now without me? A wonderful, beautiful, precious little person, who has come to me helpless and in need of me (which means that person must be quite desperate!), and I’ve been able to do something good! I’ve been able to make this person’s life what it otherwise wouldn’t be, without my love and my sacrifice and frankly no shortage of agony.
Our culture, or call it our fallen human weakness, often pits parents against children, children against parents. But in the beginning it was not meant to be so. We are meant to be on the same team. When problems arise, and those problems can be quite serious, we can be tempted to just call it all off. Cut ties. Motherhood doesn’t end. It’s an uncuttable tie. No matter how much you slice and hack and try to break the bond, it doesn’t break. Physical motherhood doesn’t break because it is written in our DNA. Spiritual motherhood doesn’t break because it is written in hearts, by the hand of Love itself.
So when we are overwhelmed by problems, healing is the only way through. And of course we know from generations of experience that not all problems between mothers and their children will be healed entirely in this life; still, that’s what we work for and pray for.
Anyhow, this weekend’s flowers were timed to help me get my head around what exactly motherhood is, and in this sense the physical is subordinate to the spiritual, I think: Motherhood is ordering your life towards the flourishing of another.
It is at times sacrificial, but it isn’t self-negating — it can’t be, for your own life is a model for your child, and you’re trying to help your child flourish. Rather, it’s a union and a multiplication. My small life invested in another human being, doing all that I can to help that other person discover lasting joy.
Update on my grandmother: She passed away this weekend. Thank you for your prayers in anticipation of her death, and kindly pray for the repose of her soul and the consolation of all her family. Also please pray that God will bless the many caregivers who made her final years as comfortable as they could be.
If you’d like to leave prayer requests of your own, the open-combox thread is here (anyone can leave a comment at that one post, regardless of subscription status). I’ll check in on it periodically, and I know other intercessors are doing so as well.