Sacred Laundry

I hate to intrude on this very estrogen-centric blog, but I wanted to share my thoughts on Mother's Day with our friends and family. The gist of this message is this: If your a mother, we (husbands/children) love you just the way you are. We appreciate the work that you do but we love you because you are a desparately needed part of our lives, a part that is rich and deep with love and nurture, softness and sacrifice; all the things that make men want to fight to protect, and work to provide for. We love you with all your imperfections, quirks, and yes, even sometimes out right failures. We love you for the indespensible, and unique role that God has give each of you in your unique family, and that God will fulfill within you.

To understand why I feel this way, you have to begin Friday at noon, as I and my three young sons waved goodbye to my wife and daughter as they left to be with her parents on Mother's Day. I insisted that she go, and now realized that I had signed up for a busy weekend. It was a LOT of work, but it turned out to be a great weekend, full of fun guy-type things: staying up too late, finding dead snakes, trying to catch crawdads in a creek, and probably a few other events that would make my wife cringe. Since we wouldn't be with mom on Mother's Day, we took time for some mushy stuff too. The boys made origami for Mom, and I took some pictures of the presents, and the boys and I in our church clothes to send to Mom today, on Mother's Day. All weekend, I have marveled at how complicated, demanding and draining being a sole care-giver can be, and how much of the role of caretaker, comforter, disciplinarian and general picker-upper my wife shoulders.

As part of our Mother's Day present, I created a mosaic picture of my wife out of pictures from a recent trip we took to visit my parents (and to show the younger Texans in our family snow for the first time!). As the boys and I looked at it, I realized that this mosaic had a deeper meaning.

The closer you look at the image of my wife, the more you see that the image is made up of images of her children, myself, my parents, the people we met, and the places that we saw. There are only a few of her by herself. These images stand as a testimony to her pouring out of herself for her children, her husband and others. I saw that this is the way my wife lives her life; not about herself, but about taking care of those around her, and giving herself for her children. As John said about Christ (John 3:30), she says about her children, through her actions, they "must become greater; I must become less."

I realized that most mothers are the same. My mother was, and all of the mom's on this blog are, and I suspect just about any mother that reads this is also. I think that God has gifted mothers with a special ability to give. Behind their smiling face, lies a million images of the lives that they influence, care for, work for, nurture, grow, build into, and sacrifice for. All to often, it is easy to zoom in close, and focus on the wrong pictures, the cloudy days, the blurry images, the sick kids or troubled finances. I am thankful for this weekend to be reminded to look at my wife from a different perspective, to appreciate her efforts, sacrifice and hard work.

I thank God, not only for the mother of my children, and my mother, but also for each mother out there that sacrifices, that works, that pours herself out as a drink offering for her family. Many times these sacrifices don't come in the grand heroic ways that make good movies. Most of the time these sacrifices are the picked up socks, the kiss for the skinned knee, the putting-the-kids-to-bed-because-daddy-is-working-late-again, the laundry that never ends ... and the list goes on.

Embedded in that same image of "Mother" are the times when mommy fails to be the mommy-that-she-wants-to-be. When she isn't as patient, kind or attentive as her children or husband want. When she fails to live up to her expectations, or those of her friends, or can't be like to mom-next door that seems to do everything right, or the lady on the blog that built a life size Eiffel tower out of popscicle sticks. I think that the message of the mosaic is this: "It's okay, you don't have to be perfect, when you zoom out, the picture looks good."

I believe that if we could see from God's perspective, we would see that the picture is beautiful. You can't out give God, and you can't fail out of his program. He has placed you in the situation that you're in, and he has a plan for you, and for your children. Rest in His sufficiency, not only this Mother's Day, but as you wade back into Monday morning with its dirty diapers, dishes and laundry. He can take our meager offerings and feed the multitudes.

Happy Mother's Day!!