All You Need is Love If you were here last week you are aware that I felt the challenge of preaching a sermon on parenting. I felt inadequate and incapable of authority status.
Well here we are today on this Mother’s Day . . . and . . .
Perception is a powerful thing. I want you to do this little exercise with me. I am going to spell a word and then I want you to answer out loud what the word spells.
The word is s, i, l, k.
Let’s follow that up with a question what do cow’s drink?
Cow’s don’t drink milk they drink water. We are easily distracted by what we perceive as the truth.
I think sometimes we have that same kind of distorted thinking about Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day is not a happy occasion for everyone.
Not everyone gets warm fuzzy feeling on this day.
Some individual’s this year lost their mothers to death.
Some of you perhaps do not remember your mother.
Some people have had bad mothers, not unlike the mother who this week escaped from prison and held a gun to the head of her little child on national TV.
There are people who do not have pleasant childhood memories and for whom days like Mother’s Day conjure up memories of verbal or physical abuse.
Our perception of Mother’s Day or any holiday must go beyond the millions of cards and cute sayings that have been produced by a few greeting card companies.
People approach it in many different ways.
Not everyone has had a bad memory. There have been many great mothers who have impacted their children and the world.
My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her. - George Washington (1732-1799)
By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacation less class. - Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1907- )
Youth fades; love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all. - Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)
I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. - Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. - Author Unknown
A small boy invaded the lingerie section of a big department store and shyly presented his problem to the salesclerk, “I want to buy my mom a present of a slip.” He said, “but I don’t know what size she wears.” The clerk said, “It would help to know if your Mom is short or tall, heavy or skinny.”“She’s just perfect,” beamed the little boy, so the clerk wrapped up a size thirty four for him. Two days later the Mom came to the store herself and changed it to a size fifty-two.Regardless of what our mother is like or may have been like, we all have the need to be loved. To be loved unconditionally is one of the most sought after affirmations in the world. We all long to be loved and held and completely accepted. Normally you would think that God would compare us to Him. We are to be like God in the way we love and live and treat each other, but there is a little obscure verse of scripture found in Isaiah that likens God’s love to that of a human.
“As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you,” Isaiah 66:13
How is God like a mother?
Most of the time we hear about the masculine, warring nature of God. He is Almighty and powerful. He is Sovereign.
That is the only idea many people have about God. He is perceived as a God who would just as soon destroy mankind as deliver them from trouble.
We can have fifty or sixty nights of gentle dew in one summer but it will not cause as much conversation as a hail storm that lasts for ten minutes.
Let a mechanic fix a hundred cars correctly and one wrongly and everyone will know about the bad one. Let the doctor cure thousands of patients correctly but misdiagnose one person and all of the sudden he or she is a bad doctor.
There are people who like to focus on the wrath of God rather than His merciful side.
I love the fact that Isaiah has this revelation of God in a little different light. Let’s look for a few moments this morning at how God’s love is like that of a mother. The best mother you can think of.
1. God is like a mother when He teaches us.
It is not often that men will take the time to teach a child it’s A,B,C’s or read the enormous amounts of books that kids seem to want read to them. But there is something in the heart of a mother that will take time for the hundredth time to tell the child the difference between the letters F and G and I and J.
God is just like that. He steps in and helps our child-like minds. We may have heard some things a thousand times yet still not understand them but God won’t give up he just keeps right on teaching.
Some of us have been trying to learn about faith for many years and yet we find it a hard lesson to learn. It is only a five letter word and yet we still stumble over it and sometimes we loose our place, but God’s patience is never exhausted.
A mother will often teach her children by using pictures. Mothers will point to a picture and say a word and teach their children to speak.
God teaches us with pictures.
Jesus stopped one day and showed his disciples a fruit tree and taught them about how all mankind will someday be judged for their works on earth. He said that we are the braches and that the fruitless branches would be cut off and thrown in the fire.
When He wanted to teach about neighborly love, He painted a picture of a man traveling to Jericho who was beaten and robbed and left for dead but one man picked him up and met his needs.
When He wanted to show how foolish it is to turn your back on God and His ways, He told a story about a young man who took his inheritance early and partied it away until he had none left. Sitting in a pig pen with nothing to eat except what the hogs were eating he begins to think about what he had turned his back on and he goes home and begs forgiveness. His father celebrates and restore him as a son.
God uses stories and pictures to teach us.
2. God is like a mother when He shows favor.
We know that parents are not supposed to have favorites. We also know that God is no respecter of persons and does not play favorites.
Do you believe that earthly fathers will sometimes show favoritism? He may try to lead that son into the family business or try to make him into the best ball player, but it is not the strong son that will be a mother’s favorite.
Her favorite is the child who was born with some challenging problem. It is the child that is week and not strong. The child is anything but a picture of health. This child causes the mother more grief than all her other children combined. If he coughs she jumps out of bed. She is always attentive to his needs. The needy child will always draw more attention.
God has His favorites.
Psalm 72:12-13, “For He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death.”
I Cor. 1:27, “. . .God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things . . .”
Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind.”
God has favorites. The needy you are the more He seems to care and reach out.
On this mother’s day you need to know and understand that no matter what issues you have in your life, God loves you and is waiting to comfort you.
3. God is like a mother when He takes care of our pain.
A father will be shocked by a broken bone or a major accident or illness but in all reality it generally takes a mother to ease and sympathize with the little bumps and bruises. It is generally a mother who will deal with the splinter in the hand. (Sterile needle vrs. Pocket knife.)
Father: “Oh that’s nothing”
Mother: Knows that sometimes a little hurt is a very big hurt.
You and your pain are important to God.
DeWitt Talmage, “A scale must be very delicate that can weigh a grain of wheat. God’s scale is so delicate that He can weigh with it that which is so small that a grain of wheat is a million times heavier.”
Erma Bombeck wrote a tribute to her mother in the form of the following story.
“When the good Lord was creating mothers He was into His sixth day of overtime when the angel appeared and said, “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.” And the Lord said, “Have you read the specs on this order? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic; have 180 moveable parts, all replaceable; run on black coffee and leftovers; have a lap that disappears when she stands up; a kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair; and six pairs of hands.”
The angel shook her head slowly and said, “Six pairs of hands. . . no way!”
“It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” said the Lord, “it’s the three pairs of eyes that mother have to have.”
“That’s on the standard model?” the angel asked.
The Lord nodded. “One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows; another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of courses the ones here in front that she can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ‘I understand, and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word. . . I can’t quit now. I already have one who heals herself when she is sick, can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger, and can get a nine-year old to stand under a shower.”
The angel circled the model of the mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed. “But tough!” said the Lord excitedly. “You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure.”
“Can it think?” “Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise and dream,” said the Creator.
Finally the angle bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. “There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told you you were trying to put too much into this model.”
“It’s not a leak, it’s a tear.” What’s that for?” “It’s for joy and sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness and pride.” “You’re a genius,” said the angel.
The Lord looked very somber, “I didn’t put it there.”
God know how to help us endure our pain.
He know what you are feeling and dealing with in your life right now.
4. God is like a mother when He puts His children to sleep.
There is no one that can put a child to sleep like a mother. A mother will rock with patience and tenderness until the child is sleeping.
All of us will someday face death. We will face that moment when we leave this world and all that we have done or not done on this earth
An elementary teacher spent an entire day teaching her class of second graders about magnets and what they do. The next day, she gave her students a written test which included the question, "My full name has six letters. The first one is M. I pick up things. What am I?" When the test papers were turned in, the teachers was astonished and amused to find that half of her students answered the question with the word, "mother."
In Our Daily Bread, Richard DeHaan writes that while mothers do pick things up, they are more than magnets gathering clothes, toys and dirty dishes from around the house. A good mother gives her family love and offers an atmosphere where each member can find acceptance, security, and understanding. A mother is there when her family needs a listening ear, a comforting word, a hug, or a loving touch.
A mother has the unique privilege of being an example of Jesus. He offers love and unconditional acceptance much like a mother does. For a Christian mother, the greatest joy is helping her children know and love Jesus too. Jesus commanded those who follow Him to love each other. —Our Daily Bread; Sunday, May 12, 1991
I recently came across a true story that happened during the Holocaust. Solomon Rosenberg, his wife and their two sons were arrested and placed in a concentration camp. The rules were simple. As long as they did their work, they were permitted to live. When they became too weak to work, they would be exterminated.
Rosenberg watched as his own father and mother were marched off to their deaths and he knew that his youngest son David would be next because he had always been a frail child. Every evening Rosenberg came back into the barracks after his hours of hard labor and searched for the faces of his family. When he found them they would huddle together, embrace one another and thank God for another day of life.
One day he came back and didn’t see those familiar faces. He finally discovered his oldest son, Joshua, in a corner sobbing and praying. “Josh, tell me it’s not true.” Joshua turned to his dad and said, “It’s true. Today David was not strong enough to do his work and so they took him away.” Mr. Rosenberg then asked, “But where is your mother?” Joshua could barely speak and finally uttered, “When they came for David, he was afraid and cried and so mom took his hand and went with him.”
Isaiah 49:15-16 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”
2003/05/11
