May 8, 2024
You might call the month of May “Special Sunday Season” this year. The church I worshiped at before coming to Hilo (my ministry was on the Connecticut Conference staff back then) would have a special coffee hour each of these Sundays. One of the associate pastors I knew referred to it as “the Season of Cake.”
I am not suggesting that we have cake every Sunday this month.
This Sunday we observe Mother’s Day. That can be… complicated. Relationships between mothers and children can be very difficult. Some women become mothers when they didn’t want to be. Some women struggle to become mothers and cannot. Some women find parenthood to be a much different challenge than what they expected.
It’s a daily miracle, I think, that successful mothering happens at all. As cute and cuddly as children can be, they bring endless demands. Those challenges shift with time without ever quite fading away. Women respond to these challenges within the limits of their circumstances, which include the ongoing realities of sexism. Some mothers have partners who co-parent well, and others cope with spouses who actively hinder. Women without partners mother their children with fewer economic resources, less support, and all too often the casual scorn of other people.
Throw in a crisis or two – and what family hasn’t experienced a crisis or two? – and motherhood is a very messy business indeed.
I praise those who bring their best to the role of motherhood. I pray for those who struggle with its demands. I sympathize with those whose mothers did not do all they hoped. I grieve with those whose mothers’ lives have ended.
Blessings to one and all this Mother’s Day, and may mothers and children find love in which to rejoice.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
The image is a tilework of a Madonna and Child, 9th or 10th century. Photo by Vassil – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75870691.
