Mom, Like God (A Mother's Day Sermon)

When you were younger, did you ever play a game of comparison? One such game went like this, “My dad is bigger than your dad because he can do this.” It’s a silly game of trying to one-up the next person. One time I played my one-up for the victory. My mom is bigger than your dad. And usually that was truthful statement. She stood 5/11, 6/2 if she was dressing up. So if she was bigger, than how much more so was my dad.

Her height helped me once. I was a paper boy of all of Kael’s age. The way that worked, you would purchase the paper from the newspaper office and then turn and sell the papers to your customers. You never bought more than you needed. But once a month, we were given enough papers to blanket every house or apartment on our route. Yet this day wasn’t that day. It was a day that I only carried a paper for each of my paying customers. And if I didn’t call the miscount in immediately, I would have to go to the store and pay full price for each paper that I was short. And to a 12 year old, a dollar was a bit of money.

You see, the neighborhood bully met me in the apartment complex and wanted a paper for himself and his friends. The store was only a half block away so it wasn’t a big deal for me to offer to sell the papers to him. Yet he insisted that I give them. When I wouldn’t budge, he took my papers, I was nearly done, as well as my bicycle. Then he boxed my ears.

I went home battered, unable to finish my route and no way of doing so the next day. Then Mom took action. She marched me back, with me protesting how embarrassing it is for her to be doing this. She found the bully, picked him up and held him against the wall with his feet dangling. She said that she would give him a spanking with my dad’s belt if he didn’t immediately return my bike, bags and the papers neatly folded and banded so that I could finish my route. Funny thing is, I don’t recall being bullied again. Mom was taller than the average dad. No one messed with her.

One night I was sleepless when I discovered another one of mom’s habits. She waited until everyone went to bed before she would start cleaning the house. It was never a problem, never woke us. Ranch style house had a hallway with the rooms off either side. She was in the front so with the bedroom doors closed we never heard the sink run. The clothes washer was outside. And Yuma of course had natural heat dryer that worked even in the heart of midnight. I asked her why she cleaned so late at night. It was the only time that she was able get the house clean because she didn’t have time the rest of the day.

She was busy with her politics, with scouting, with pop warner football for my brother. She worked along side dad during tax season and kept the books for all the organizations that she was involved. In the evening, she spent it with us watching Dallas, Falcon Crest, and sometimes Dukes of Hazard, if the other shows were doing reruns.

All of this is to say that being today is Mother’s Day, I want to honor mom, and look at how mothers are a type for God, an example, a shadow of His character.

The first example of Moms being like God comes from the 10 commandments, Exodus 20.8-11:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work — you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

 

And that was it. 

Did you see how moms are like God here? She is missing from the list of those who are to keep the Sabbath holy. There is something about a mother’s work is never done. As soon as one project is completed, another comes along. Sometimes a chore, such as laundry, is never ending. Kids make a lot of dirty clothes, and if you have a lot of kids… This assumes of course that life in the family is going great. No one is experiencing trouble with homework, or of the heart, and that everyone is sound health.

Moms work. They want their atmosphere to be inviting, warm, full of love. I have seen it with my own mom, and I see it again repeated with my children’s mom.

When the disciples were busted for harvesting and milling grain, ie they picked a stalk for a very light snack, Jesus replied that man wasn’t created to serve the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath serves us. It was given to us to rest from our labor, to worship the Lord during this rest. Yet our Heavenly Father is at work now. He is apart from time. Our Lord Jesus said to his disciples that he was going away for a time to prepare for us a place, and that he would return when it was ready. In the words of Keith Green, “If he has been working on heaven for 2,000 years, what glory that shall be.”

Another way moms are like God comes from Isaiah 66, the last chapter, where the Lord is telling us through the prophet that even though people are turning away from Him, though they are suffering the storms from their choices, a time is coming that He will once again comfort and nurture His children. Nurture is the mother’s form of discipline. Dads discipline, train and mostly without mercy and grace. We expect the kids to immediately catch the ball, get the hang of riding a bike. We have little patience, generally speaking. Paul even tells us men not to provoke our children. He doesn’t chide mothers at all, but stays silent on that topic. Why?  Because moms are wholly different. Their patience is boundless. They are willing kiss a scrape before they bandage the child.

Nurturing is also guiding the child into adulthood. Consider how Paul praises Timothy’s mom and grandma for Timothy’s knowledge and faith in Christ Jesus. They raised him to know who Jesus is, the fulfillment of the old covenant, the savior of our sins, our way to the Father. As they guided Timothy in the faith, doesn’t our heavenly Father do the same for us when He sealed us with the Holy Spirit when we were clothed in Christ?

And though I do not have a scriptural reference for this last character of moms, we can see it time and again. That is the picture of Grace. Moms excel in grace. They see the best in the child, unless you’re that one mom who was given video evidence that her son had gone astray. You have surely seen the video of mom disciplining her son for his riotous ways.

Yet even now, I wonder if she hasn’t already forgiven her son. It is the same grace that he was from our Heavenly Father. Because of our faith in Christ Jesus, we are declared righteous. That is grace, free of guilt, of condemnation.

So what is the take home this morning? It is a short simple one. The application isn’t so much as how we treat one another. The blessings and hard labors of love that I have seen displayed here has been a treasure to my family and me. Yet, Paul encourages Titus as to how we are to treat one another, the older women as mother figures, the younger as sisters. In our world today, there are some moms who are having a rough go of it. They are battling storms of various degrees and types. Some are trying to help make ends meet, and some are solely making ends meet.

How would it look if you offered to help a mom struggling by just offering her a few hours respite? For the couple, why not offer a date night that you can watch the children while they catch a show that would make their older kids envious. Oh wait, I shouldn’t provoke my sons.

As each day passes it seems that the family is becoming more fractured. The church, in turn, becomes more fractured. So it starts with a couple of people who are mature in the faith to take a young family and mentor them. We need to celebrate family more, and help mothers to be the women that honors God. After all, how a child views his parents tends to shape how he views his Heavenly Father.