This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day. A day filled with happy memories for most of us. I remember many Mother’s Day Programs over the years, where children, after weeks of practice would stand in front of the church with a recitation that declared their love and admiration of their Mother, and the mothers were presented with red carnations. The children were anxious, nervous, excited and even fearful to say their parts, but they stood to make their mothers proud.
And proud is just what the mothers were. It didn’t matter if the children forgot some of the words, or spoke them too quickly, or if they were too soft spoken to hear or so loud you jumped. There was much joy as the younger children recited their parts, even if the shyest of children didn’t say their part at all. As you watched you could easily tell what mothers the children belonged to as the respective mothers sat straighter and beamed with pride as their child took to the stage.
These children did not have to be perfect because they were perfectly loved by their mothers. This is also true of our relationship with God; we are not perfect but we are perfectly loved. There’s an old saying that goes: “God loves us as we are but too much too leave us there”. We see this clearly declared to us in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” You see Jesus loved us while we were still sinners; while we were still liars, thieves, murderers, idolaters and the like. He loved us so much that He gave his life for us to rescue us from our sins.
I think of the Psalmist David who had his highs and lows in his relationship with God. David was far from perfect and yet he penned these words: “He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” Psalm 18:19 “The Lord takes delight in his people, he crowns the humble with victory” Psalm 149:4 David is known as a man after God’s own heart. David sought God and desired to be known and loved by Him. When he was in despair David sought the Lord, and the Lord delivered him. God delighted in David. In the same way God delights in us and He continues to deliver us.
As we celebrate Mothers this weekend, may we also celebrate a God whose love is even greater than a Mother’s love. We may not be perfect like the children in a program, but also like the children in a program let’s like our lives, let’s do our part to make God proud of us.