Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…

“She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future. 
When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness. She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness.
Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!”                                                   
Proverbs 31: 25-29 (NLT)

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. 

A day when we remembered, honored, and thanked our Mothers and Grandmothers, and those others who stood in their place to fill the void for some of us.

The roles mothers often play go unnoticed to the rest of the world. 

Roles which involve unparalleled sacrifice and love which change the world and the lives they touch. 

A love which honors, models, and glorifies God.

A love which fleshes itself out by sacrificially serving and giving of their health, wealth, time, rest, position, and life, to those they love in lieu of their own interests, fame, fortune, or image.

A love, second only, to the love of God.

Do you know one of those—here now, or who was here—whose love clearly comes from the hand and heart of God?

“Mother.” A name which should reflect the love Christ shared when He gave His life on the cross for you and for me.

A love depicted in a true story I heard a few years ago. The story of a man by the name of Solomon Rosenberg, and his family. 

He and his mother and father, his bride and two sons, Joshua and David, were imprisoned in one of the Nazi’s cruel concentration camps during WW II. The conditions and treatment were inhumane, while the rules of the camp were simple. 

If you were strong enough to work—you lived. If you were too weak and couldn’t work—you were exterminated.

Every night Solomon Rosenberg searched to find his family after a hard day of work. One day he watched as his mother and father, too old and sickly to work anymore, were led off to their deaths in the gas chamber. 

Solomon continued, every night, to look for his bride and two sons. He worried in particular about David, his younger son, since he was frail and slightly crippled. And every night when he found them, they would huddle together, hold each other, and celebrate their lives and love for yet another day together.

One evening as he searched, he couldn’t find his family. He continued to search frantically, and finally found Joshua weeping in the corner of the barracks. 

“Tell me it isn’t true, Joshua. Where is David?” 

“It’s true Poppa, today David was not strong enough to work, so they came for him.” 

Through tears his father asked, “But where is your mother? She is still strong.”

“When they came for David,” Joshua could barely continue, “David was crying, and so momma took his hand, and said ‘don’t be afraid, precious, I’ll go with you.’”

There it is. 

What Godly mothers would do. What Godly mothers have done through the ages, following the example of Christ.

Chris Janson sings the beautiful song “Bye Mom.” 

One of the lines of the song is a powerful reminder of the love of a Mother, when he shares this early line—

“And you don’t know you’re somebody
That somebody loves more than themselves.”

Then this line, as the now grown child remembers the ever-present love of their Mother—

“And you realize you’re somebody
That somebody loves more than themselves.” 

A Mother’s love. A love more than self, and second only to the overwhelming love of Christ hanging on the cross for you and for me.

Yesterday we remembered, honored, and thanked them. 

But every day we also need to embrace, lift, and love them.

And every day, we will honor them again, by following their example and living our lives with their kind of love— for all others which you and I meet every day.

In His Name–Scott

You will be moved and blessed as you watch the video and listen to Chris Janson sing his song “Bye Mom.”