Nurturing each other
Mother’s Day got me thinking of what “mothering” is. The word I came up with is “nurturing.” It seems to me when we nurture each other, we are being like a mother to each other. And when God nurtures us, he is displaying the way he is our “mother in heaven” as much as our “father in heaven.”
Not too long ago, I heard someone talking about the verse that says, “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me (Matthew 25:40 - paraphrased). I’ve heard this verse many times, as you may have. What I got from it, at least mainly, was that Jesus was reminding me to be kind to everyone, whether I liked them or not, because everyone is in the image of God. Therefore, being good to anyone—rich or poor, important or not, someone I liked or despised—was being good to God. It was a “should” kind of thing for me, which is something I am trying not to do in this email—not to remind you of what you should do because you’re a Christian, important as that is, but I think we get plenty of that elsewhere—rather instead to remind you that God loves you unconditionally, just the way you are.
Yet, here I am writing about the verse often used as a “should.” Why? This woman I heard (and I cannot remember who it was) remarked that she had realized that she was “doing for the least of these” when she was being a mom. Her children could be considered “the least of these.” Caring for and bringing up her children was fulfilling the words of that verse, “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” I never thought of that! Have you?
This really struck me. Whenever I heard that parable where Jesus said, “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me,” and then, “Whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me,” I felt rather inadequate, like I haven’t lived up to what God wants from me as a Christian. I couldn’t help it. I knew how often I did not help others, or worse, even made others feel bad or hurt them somehow. I knew how often I forgot that they were the image of God. I often remind myself that others I don’t know or even really care about in a significant way are “the apple of God’s eye” just as much as I am. I know how self-centered I am inside.
But how cool that I was fulfilling my calling as a Christian just by being a mom. I’m far from a perfect mom, but I did take good care of my children. I did do good to them, “the least of these.” And my husband was a good dad, nurturing our kids, too. Instead of feeling inadequate, I felt adequate. Instead of wondering whether I was fulfilling my call as a Christian, I was reassured that, yes, I did fulfill God’s call.
I hope that this little revelation and cause for joy for me is an encouragement and cause for joy for you, too. When you’ve cared for your children or nurtured others in some way (and it strikes me that includes pets, other animals, the earth, and creation), you did what Jesus talked about in that parable. “You did it for the least of these,” and that was doing it for him.