The tradition to set aside a day to honor mothers has been around for a long time. I don’t know where it started. That doesn’t matter. Mothers are important to us, and they are important to God. In John 19:25-27, while He was on the cross, Jesus honored His mother who was standing at His feet.
He looked down from the cross and said this to His mother and to one of His disciples whom we believe to be John, “Woman, behold your son.” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” Jesus honored His mom who was about to lose one of her children. His mom had other sons and daughters, but Jesus thought to make sure that His mom would be cared for after He died.
Several things we see in this exchange between Jesus, His mom and John.
Jesus loved His mom. He probably loved her more than His brothers and sisters loved her.
Jesus cared for and about His mom.
Jesus gave her His best while He lives. And after He departed, He made sure she had the best of what would remain.
Jesus favored His mom and was graceful towards her.
Now we don’t have to be the mother of Jesus to understand how important moms are to us and how we should treat them. There are other examples of moms in the bible who were favored by God and man. One of those was Hannah the mother of the prophet Samuel.
The name Hannah is a girl’s name that has Hebrew origin. It means favor or grace. 1 Samuel 1:4-7 tells some of the story of Hannah. She was married but without children. Her husband had a second wife who had several children. This second wife mistreated Hannah because she was barren. Hannah was grieved, tormented, and provoked by this second wife.
But scripture says this about Hannah’s husband, Elkanah. It says Elkanah gave much to his second wife and to their children, but always gave more to Hannah because he loved her more. 1 Samuel 1:5.
Elkanah somehow did for Hannah what Jesus did for His mom years later. He did for Hannah what we should be doing for our moms now.
He took care of his other wife, but he loved Hannah. We have to love our moms. And even if they are barren in some way, they are still special before God so they should be before us.
Elkanah favored Hannah, and he made sure it was known by others. We must love in ways that it are seen and known by others. This shows the favor of God on the moms in our lives.
Elkanah knew his wife, and he did not stand in the way of what was important to her – children. We have to know what is important to our wives and to our moms and to help provide those things of importance.
Mother’s Day is indeed a special day because mothers are a special people before the Lord and God. It is through my mother that I learned that as much as is within me; because of that, I work hard to have a great relationship with the women in my life. You see, nowhere in scripture does it suggest that moms are or must be perfect.
But just like Jesus with His mom, and Elkanah with Hannah, you and I today can make imperfect things perfect when we find it within ourselves to favor our moms, always giving grace to them no matter who they are towards us.
Just like Elkanah’s second wife was mean towards Hannah but Elkanah used that to favor Hannah even more, so we must learn to favor the moms and the women in our lives no matter the circumstances of life we face.
And to you moms and wives reading this, be like Hannah. Don’t let hard things that come up against you make you a hard person to love and to favor and to give grace. Remember, people are called to love and to favor you. Learn to make that as easy as possible for them but being humble and graceful in all you are and in all you do.
Happy Mother’s Day to you all.
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