A Mother’s Love

This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and that got me thinking about a mother’s love. 

A mother loves her child no matter what they do. If you think about it, right from the beginning, children do nothing to deserve love. When they are in the womb they cause discomfort, morning sickness, and pain during the many months of pregnancy. And then there’s the pain childbirth.

And while they look cute when they come out, all they end up doing is eating, pooping, sleeping, and crying. They require constant attention with feedings every two to three hours, which means sleepless nights.

Yet mothers amazingly love them unconditionally.

• How is it that when our kids are screaming, crying, and having temper tantrums a mother can still love them?
• How is it that when they grow up and make poor decisions, rejecting their parent’s advice and potentially the parents themselves, a mother, with a broken heart, can still love them?

Love like that is illogical; it doesn’t make sense, why would someone love without thought of return when the cost is so high. Where does that love come from? I can tell you that it doesn’t come from millions of years of evolution. It comes from God; it is a gift from God.

The Bible says we have been created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and that God is love (1 John 4:8,16). Therefore, God has hardwired us to love others as He has loved us. And the love a mother has for her child is God’s greatest example of the kind of love He has for us.

Apostle Paul uses a mother’s example of God’s love to explain how we are to love one another.

“But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.” (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8)