Mother's Day 2013

I stumbled across this blog and found a post about Mother's Day.  As you may recall, I've struggled with Mother's Day for a while now, but these words were powerful.  And good.  And true.  They tell about a loving God that knows exactly what we need when we need it.  I love that God.  I hope wherever you are in your life, you are able to go to God's House with your burdens and lay them down.  Happy Mother's Day!!

God's House by Mary Martin Wiens

Whether we are women or men, whether we mother children or mother in other ways, Mother’s Day is one of those days that can highlight our needs. You may come to this day with the need to remember. To forget. To be remembered. To be honored. To be comforted. To be forgiven. To be given hope. To be given an “A.” I am more convinced than ever that we are to take our needs and run to our Home. Our Home is within the One who made us and loves us and in that place we are tenderly, intimately cared for like the best of parents would care for a child, but oh so much better. So, I want you to imagine with me that in the MIDST a long journey (perhaps the long journey of parenting, of infertility, of grieving, whatever the long journey of your life is right now) you suddenly arrive at the place where the heart of God dwells. And God, like a Mother—but the kind of mother God would be—meets you at the door with a look of unabashed welcome and invites you in. What might that be like?

When you come to the house of God
With the mud of trying dripping from your sleeves
Covered in cruelties
Your own and others Obscured by false agreements
She cleans your clothes, shakes them out and hangs them up to dry
And you she washes, washes, washes
Like water lapping on rock saying
Let me get that off of you and
There you are and Now do you remember?

So let us run to the house of God

When you come wounded to house of God
She builds a circle around you
She stands guard and houses your pain
She holds your weeping head in her lap and
Whispers, I know Gently, methodically she tends each hurt saying
All is well You will be well
At all times I work to make all things well

So let us run to the house of God

When you come undone in the house of God
She gathers you up She remembers who you are
She breathes vitality back into you saying
Here. Here is your body
Here again are your hands, are your feet, is your mouth
Here is your mind Here is your spirit
Here I am Here you are

So let us run to the house of God

When you are hungry in the house of God
She sets out to nourish you entirely
She satisfies and delights your whole being
She heartens you with substance saying
Take your time Listen to me I have all you need
It is free. Free. Free.

So let us run to the house of God

When you are naked in the house of God
When you stand exposed by the limits of being human
What you can’t make happen
What you can’t stop from happening
What you can’t know

She covers you
She sees you and She clothes you saying
Here is safety
Here is grace
I know how you are made I call you good.  Good. Good.

So let us run to the house of God

And, When the time is right in the house of God
She does a dance; She opens wide the doors
She presents you to the world saying
Here is my Beloved with whom I am pleased So pleased So very pleased