Our Mother, Who Art in Heaven

Happy Mother's Day! If you exist, thank a mother. If you are a mother, thank you for bringing more beautiful, mysterious, and lovable human beings into the world for me to meet. Mothers deserve gifts every day of the year, which is why children should always try to be a blessing to their mothers. But a little something special is definitely in order once in a while. After all, motherhood is a divine vocation.

Picture of this rockin' Mom courtesy of HONY

When it comes to Christian images of mothers, Mary, Mother of Jesus, comes to mind immediately. What a star! She was chosen by God to give birth to the person who would save the world. Scripture records the beautiful song that she sang upon hearing this news. In it, she says "surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed." She felt so blessed she had no doubt that all future people would be able to tell. It's like she knew just how radiant her face must have been when she heard she was pregnant.

In our culture, mothers are sinfully under-appreciated. We have a day for them, but we expect them to do all of our work for the rest of the year. And then we blame them whenever anything goes wrong! We would do well to remember that when God came down to earth, it was not a miraculous descent from the clouds. God deliberately came to us through a mother. Therefore, moms are a really big deal.


Mary is not the only famous Christian mother. Many people might also think of a certain Albanian nun called Mother Teresa, even though she was not a mother in the literal sense of having given birth to children. She created a new order of nuns, the Missionaries of Charity, of which she is the spiritual "mother." During the first decades of her ministry in India, she established a leper colony, an orphanage, a nursing home, a family clinic and a string of mobile health clinics. That's good hustle. She is widely acknowledged as a towering pillar of charity and faith. Not every woman can have biological children, but Mother Teresa reminds us that this does not stop them from becoming mothers.


God is also a mother. Well, God is beyond comprehension and so all descriptions are just feeble approximations. Still, when it comes to images of God, though, we often get stuck with "father." A father is a good way to imagine God. So is a mother. It's not just my opinion, scripture affirms it.

For example, in Deuteronomy, God is compared to a mother eagle. "As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, and bears them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead Jacob." Mother eagles do this amazing thing where they fly with their young on their back. As the chicks learn to fly, the mother lets them go, but she is always flying under them, bearing them up mightily. This reminds me of my human mother, constantly navigating how to hold me up and still let me fly on my own as I get older. It is a labor of love and one that God does for us as well.

Wouldn't mind this on a shirt...

In Isaiah, God is revealed as a woman in labor. God says through the prophet: "I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant." This is no weak and tired panting though, it is the forceful exhalation of a woman in labor. With this breath, God proclaims: "I will lay waste the mountains and hills." God promises not to remain silent but to manifest Her awesome maternal power in judgment over an unjust world. We all know that mothers are not just cushy and nurturing; they reign with justice and might. Furthermore, mothers take a keen interest in the moral conduct of their children, holding them accountable just as God does.

There are many more examples of motherly imagery for God. Scripture paints a picture of motherhood as a multifaceted, difficult, and divine role that is fulfilled in love. This is why motherhood is an excellent image of what God does for the world. When we recognize that motherhood is a reflection of divine activity, we are on our way to honoring our mothers as we ought to.

What better way to honor thy mother than to buy/make her a drink?

Power to the Purple

For as long as I can remember my grandmother has had a book on her shelf called When I am an Old Woman I shall Wear Purple. It just occurred to me how cool this declaration is. My grandmother actually followed through on this and so this drink is for Grandma, the mother of my mother.

Ingredients: 4 blackberries, 1 juicy lime slice, 1 tablespoon agave syrup, 1 shot pisco (Peruvian/Chilean brandy), splash soda water.

Mash up blackberries, lime, and agave syrup at the bottom of your glass. Add ice and pour pisco over the top. Shake this, do not remove the ice. Pour in a splash of soda water.

It's a sweet and sour, refreshing drink but the pisco sneaks up on you, just like your Mom when you raided her liquor cabinet in high school.

Power to the Purple with bottle of pisco