Mothers and the Heart of God

I had just returned from a trip from Bahrain where on arriving there I found my mother very ill. She developed a severe infection in her leg causing heavy swelling and incessant oozing making it extremely difficult for her to walk or to lift the leg. It was difficult for me to see her in that state especially knowing how active she was when we were children. My parents both worked full time jobs at least 10-12 hours a day, six days a week. My mother would swiftly prepare all the meals for the day before having to leave the house for work at around 7:30am. I don't know how she did it. I would on many days wake up to the sound of her praying or at times find her praying at my bedside. Leaving the house at 7:30am, she would then walk the 3-4 kilometers to work.

When I was six months old, having no other choice, she put me in a daycare. She would walk to work, come back during her lunch break just to change my diapers (because the day care people wouldn't) and then walk back. She shared once that it was difficult for her to do that because I would be crying for her and often with tears in her eyes, she would have to leave me there and walk back to work. Tough days. But she was and still is a tough woman. I still feel a lump in my throat when I think about the amount of sacrifice both my parents have made on our behalf as children.

So, for me to see her feet in the condition that it was, was heart breaking. The same feet that walked those roads to make ends meet for us as a family so that we could have an education and be together. It is heart rending to see her struggle and I wish I could just take it all away.

As I'm writing this, she's admitted in the ICU in Bangalore as doctors are trying to stabilise her blood pressure and a host of other procedures that need to be done to tackle the infection in her body.

For those of us who have been graced with a good mother, we know, there is something about the sacrifice of a mother that as children we tend to appreciate more as we grow older. The strength they have shown in frailty, the selfless love and devotion they offer, their unconditional acceptance and their continued thoughts of "others"in the midst of their pain and struggles is something one would rarely experience in any other relationship.

It is Christ-like in everyway. Nurturing, Nourishing, sacrificial even to his dying breath, we find in our Saviour a perfection of love like no other. How he came to serve, to gently lift up the downtrodden, the outcasts, the rejects, the poor, destitute and voiceless. He didn't come with great speeches. But with great power in love. He didn't come with great might, but served through weakness. His body fraiil, flogged and nailed on a cross, he said, it was a ransom, a sacrifice he willngly makes on behalf of those who were far away from him. Like the mother who continues to love and serve the rebellious child, Jesus came, loved, served and died even for his enemies. Even while on the cross, in the midst of pain, he thinks about his mother and who will care for her once he's gone. On the cross, nailed there, mocked there, he thinks about those who are crucifying him and prays for their forgiveness. The hands that served, the feet that walked into the brokenness of people's lives, and in a larger sense, the hands that created all that there is and the feet that were there in the fire with Daniel, the feet that John saw in his vision of a Saviour who is present with the Church being persecuted like He was - the hands and feet of Jesus nailed to the cross for you and me. A life given for our forgiveness, for our restoration, our homecoming to the presence of God - God reaching out to us, saying "Come and be right with me. I'll make the wrong things right again", much like the comforting touch of a mother in the midst of deep pain.

He has provided. He is there. He heals and restores. He accepts and builds us up. He speaks life to us. He satisfies our deepest longing to be seen, heard and loved for who we are. There is no love like this. And this morning I thank God for my mother who has given me a foretaste of that love.

Even though her hands and feet are weak and frail today, our Saviour's hands and feet are still on the move. And his life today, is our hope. Showing always that though her body is withering, she is being renewed day after day by the power of his presence in her - not only her, but you and me as well.

Rest in His love today.