. . . Of a Mother
As thought is given to mothers and motherhood there are two special elements in my memory of Mother’s Day, especially during the last 50 years. First, with a few exceptions, I have been blessed with the opportunity to annually write and publish a piece such as this with the aim of giving honor to mothers and motherhood.
Second, as a preacher of the gospel, but by the grace of God, one of the richest blessings of my life has been to study, prepare, and deliver the word of God (the Holy Scriptures) as it relates to life and godliness (cf. 2 Peter 1:3)—this life, life to come, and reverence for God who is the foundation of it all through the knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ. It is no small thing to learn some of the great things revealed in Scripture concerning mothers and motherhood; for example, the implications in the fact of which Barclay spoke when he wrote, “There is something infinitely moving in the fact that Jesus in the agony of the cross, in the moment when the salvation of the world hung in the balance, thought of . . . His mother” (299; cf. John 19:25-27). One of the treasured highlights during the delivery of these messages has been to behold my very own mother in an assembled audience, along with the mother of my children, and many other great mothers to whom I have been allowed the privilege of declaring the inexhaustible word of God.
Due to the pandemic brought on by the Coronavirus of 2019, which yet continues to a lesser degree, and the natural death of my aged mother in November 2019, Mother’s Day 2020 was very different from those of the preceding five decades. Although I do not remember the specific class in which he said it, I often recall Dr. Thomas B. Warren making a powerful statement concerning the value of one’s mother. He said, “Fellows, the world will never be the same when you awake one morning and realize your mother is no longer a part of it.” For this writer that day came November 6, 2019.
A biblical passage penned by David is still powerfully pertinent although the words were written in a context different from that of this article, David described himself “as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning” (Psalm 35:14, ESV). The above two statements (the former from one of the greatest Bible teachers I have known, and the latter from David who said, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me and His word was on my tongue,” 2 Samuel 23:1-2) imply the awesome nature of the bond between a mother and a child.
As an example, consider the learning of a mother. By such, we mean the learning that occurs from the influence a mother has on her child. There is a sense in which the natural bond of a mother and child has a potentially profound influence beyond all other human relationships. In this sense, it can be said that mothering is probably the most important function on Earth.
Addressing the practice of surrogate motherhood Katy Faust writing for The Daily Signal, an online publication of the Heritage Foundation, observed: “We don’t immediately place newborns on the chests of random women so they can forge a bond. We place them on their mother’s chest because they have an existing bond. Surrogacy purposefully severs that bond.” The mother-child bond begins at conception and, if as it should be, is cemented and strengthened through the years. Thus it is doubtful that there is anyone in a child’s life who potentially can have a greater influence on the child than the mother. The Bible implies this in the proverb, “Like mother, like daughter!” (Ezekiel 16:44, NKJV). To mothers, Alexander Campbell wrote:
The babe that smiles in your arms, and finds its support and its refuge in your bosom, receives its first impressions from you. It recognizes a relation existing between you and it before it forms an idea of a father. . . . Your countenance is the first volume it reads. . . . Its articulations are formed from yours, and your language is the first it can understand. . . . You, then, occupy a place which cannot be rivalled. . . . Do not be startled when I tell you that you are, by the law of nature, which is the law of God, as well by His written word, ordained to be the only preachers of the gospel, properly so called to your own offspring. . . . [Y]ou can preach the gospel to them better than any Doctor of Divinity that ever lived. You can narrate to them the nativity and life, the words and deeds of Messiah; you can open to their minds how He died for our sins, and how He rose for our justification. . . . How blissful the privilege and how high the honor conferred on you. . . ! (69)
Furthermore, consider the lifting of a mother. Through the prophet Isaiah, God said, “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you . . .” (Isaiah 66:13, ESV). As we speak of the lifting of a mother we mean her comforting, consoling, and calming power. Mother is the one who is able beyond others to soothe the cries from the crib. Her touch can cool a fevered brow. She has the innate ability to kiss away the pain from a skinned knee, stubbed toe, or a broken heart. Her voice may not win a Grammy Award, but the song of a mother to a child is the song of an angel.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s the name T. B. Larimore was the recognized name belonging to a great preacher of that era. In his childhood, Larimore as early as age ten, worked as a plowboy in order to support his mother and sisters at a wage of $4.00 per month. The boy became so weak and frail from this work that the plow handles were often covered with blood from his nose. This blood loss caused him to reel and stagger between the plow handles. In a book authored by his wife, the story is told by Larimore himself. He said:
. . . I always went home-a mile and a quarter away-after dark Saturday night. My way lay along the riverside, up the river on the right bank. On one side were tall mountains that cast their shadows over the river every bright day. On the other side of the road was the river, and, as I walked along, I could hear it rippling over shallow places and murmuring against the bank. At one place a deep ravine cut across the road, and down in that ravine it was always dark as I passed along going home. I was timid and afraid. My sweet little mother knew I was timid, and, notwithstanding she was timid, too, she always came to the edge of the ravine nearest home, to meet me. As I approached that dark place, she would hear me and call softly: “Is that you, my son?” Then all my fears were gone. We would meet in the ravine and go home together happy, no longer afraid or timid. I sometimes wonder if, when I come to cross the valley of death, I shall hear my mother’s voice on the other side as she waits for me to come. I know she will be there, if she can. (48)
Consider the loyalty of a mother. The loyalty resulting from a mother’s love is profound. A mother’s loyalty to her child is used by Isaiah to teach the nature of God’s faithfulness to His children. “But Zion said, ‘the Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands . . .” (Isaiah 49:14-16, ESV).
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. is a collection of essays by the American author Washington Irving (1783-1859). One of the essays is “The Widow and Her Son.” The following lines eloquently and truthfully illustrate the unique loyalty of a mother.
There is something in sickness that breaks down the pride of manhood; that softens the heart, and brings it back to the feelings of infancy. Who that has languished, even in advanced life, in sickness and despondency; who that has pined on a weary bed in the neglect and loneliness of a foreign land; but has thought on the mother “that looked on his childhood,” that smoothed his pillow, and administered to his helplessness? Oh! [T]here is an enduring tenderness in the love of a mother to her son that transcends all other affections of the heart. It is neither to be chilled by selfishness, nor daunted by danger, nor weakened by worthlessness, nor stifled by ingratitude. She will sacrifice every comfort to his convenience; she will surrender every pleasure to his enjoyment; she will glory in his fame, and exult in his prosperity: —and, if misfortune overtake him, he will be the dearer to her from misfortune; and if disgrace settle upon his name, she will still love and cherish him in spite of all his disgrace; and if all the world beside cast him off, she will be all the world to him.
The esteemed newscaster, Paul Harvey once published a column titled “Having a Baby Is Important.” He wrote, “For each [mother] there is this personal Garden of Gethsemane. She goes there for strength. I have not tried to tell you it is easy. . . . Only that it is terribly important. . . . It has ever been so! Diapers . . . Toys that will not run . . . noses that will not stop. . . . And women . . . back into the garden . . . and again. . . . Humming a lullaby.”
It is doubtful that one could overestimate the value of a mother in a child’s life. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that, in this day, when so many are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7), especially in such obvious areas of reality as man, woman, male, female, husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, the denial of fundamental truth in today’s 21st century mixed-up culture is closely connected to a rejection of the infinite value of a mother.
Between the words “. . . do not despise your mother when she is old” (Proverbs 23:22) and “. . . let her who bore you rejoice” (Proverbs 23:25) are the words “Buy the truth, and do not sell it. . .” (Proverbs 23:23). Think about it!
Charles C. Pugh III
Executive Director
Works Cited:
Campbell, Alexander, ed. Christian Baptist. 1823. Vol. 1. Cincinnati: Central Book, 1880. 7 vols in 1.
Barclay, William. The Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of John. Vol. 2. 1955. Edinburgh: St. Andrew, 1965.
Harvey, Paul. “Mothers: Important Tasks Await Your Babies.” The Chronicle. 25 May 1993.
Irving, Washington. “Christmas Day.” The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Columbia.edu.
Larimore, Mrs. T. B. Life and Letters and Sermons of T. B. Larimore. Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 1955.