The Gospel According to Moms

In the beginning was Love and the Love was with God and the Love was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
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God couldn’t be everywhere so He made Moms and without Moms was not any human made. And Moms turned on the lights when it was dark. And their lights shone in the dark so that the darkness wasn’t so scary.

 Moms were told long ago that unless children be born of flesh and water and blood, they could not enter the earth. So Moms had a lot of babies. The pain of labor was often so unbearable that they couldn’t even remember it and that was a good thing. Otherwise they might not have done it so many times.
Now one Mom and Dad had sons. The Dad was good and the sons were also good. Now one of the sons came down and he saw that it was good. His name was Aaron. He said to his brother, “Come on down. It’s fun here.” And his brother’s name was Matthew. Then the brothers told Daniel and David to come down so they could have some “cacklin’ times” (telling jokes about their parents and laughing hysterically.) So they came and it was good.  They were good, good sons!

It turned out that this Mom could perform miracles. She could take a box of dry pasta and turn it into The Real Kind (delicious Macaroni and Cheese.) Sometimes the sons brought home friends from school. They gathered and were hungry. The Mom took pizza and multiplied it many times over and they were fed. The Mom took care of them when they were sick. She and the Dad performed many miracles. They took them to the ER when they had broken bones or an asthma attack.  They put bandages on their cuts and kissed their bruises. Sometimes they put a cool cloth on their heads and their fevers broke. Then Mom would say, “Rise up and get thee to school.”

Still, there were times when she got angry. When their house got too messy, she would take a scourge of small cords and threaten her sons. She would never hit them but she would turn them out of the house to play in the snow.  Sometimes she would go to the mountain alone for she needed rest. They feared she might not return but she came back. Her faith was such that she could walk across the rubble they had left and calm their troubled spirits.

The Mom and Dad taught their sons. They taught them about love and about being kind to others and treating their brothers well and sharing with those in need. But the sons didn’t always hear and they didn’t always see. They were busy playing basketball and gymnastics and tennis. Their giant shoes were smelly and they cared not. They kicked holes in the walls and they knew it not.  They “beasted” (tormented in endless and creative ways like turning a laundry hamper upside down on your baby brother) upon their brothers and their brothers returned in kind. But then the sons became parents and suddenly their eyes were opened. They heard and understood the lessons their parents had taught them. And the parents laughed and laughed.

This Mom found that her path was hard and strewn with thorns and briars. She discovered that she had planted some of them herself! She prayed. She prayed for relief from the never-ending work.  She prayed for deliverance from her own weaknesses, her anger and her despair. Sometimes when she prayed she couldn’t hear anything. Her ears were filled with wax. She clung to the Dad or they clung to each other for they felt lost.

But then a Voice would come, a Voice of Holy Wisdom from the One whose life she tried to emulate. It would speak with perfect clarity: “This is a Holy Place and you are doing Holy Work.” “Really? Really?” she would answer. “But I am such a mess!” But the Voice would answer, “Yes. But you are a Holy Mess!”
Through it all the Mom loved her children as had her mother before her in her own imperfect way. As had all the Mothers through the ages, those same Mothers who had brought Love to Life.  “I pray for them” the Mothers said. “I pray not for the world, (of wars and battles; of politics and power; of progress and prosperity) but for them which thou hast given me. I pray for these children that are in the world and I pray that none of them will be lost. Thou hast sent me into the world, and now I also have sent them into the world; that the Love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I also in them, full of Grace and Truth.” Amen.