A Biblical Look at Mother's Day: A Song for the Rest of Us

As we approach Mothers Day, I am very thankful for the moms that have been in my life: my mom, grandma, sister, aunts, cousins, and friends. I honor them all. However, I also honor women who could not conceive, never had opportunity to try, do not have a desire for
children or choose not to have children for a variety of reasons. 

I am one of those women. Nevertheless, I am not without hope, and I do not despair.

Recently I had an opportunity to teach a class at my local church on the topic “Fulfilled in Christ.” This study was a four-week journey toward a new way to view our lives. We examined what it means to be family, and what constitutes “normal” in modern society and in the life of a believer in Christ.

In the class, we studied how scripture reveals a different way to understand stages of the human life than is typically represented in society and, oftentimes, the church. It is a "normal" assumption that individuals should follow a certain set of rules for the stages of life and are sometimes seen as atypical or not normal if they don't. 

In the class, we studied that the church is meant to be a place of inclusion. The church was created and transformed by Jesus to be a family where everyone belongs. We also looked into the scriptures to find that the ultimate goal of life was not to create your family, but to be a family as God intended.

In Isaiah 54, we read that one particular revelation about the coming of the Christ (the Messiah) was a new way to see motherhood. This passage speaks of the woman who cannot bear children: 

“Sing, barren woman,

you who never bore a child;

burst into song, shout for joy,

you who were never in labor;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

than of her who has a husband”

The barren woman sings. She SINGS. In a world where having babies and preserving bloodlines was so very important, a woman who cannot have children is singing.  

Why?

In the Garden of Eden, God expressed His desire for creation to have relationship with Him. When Eden collapsed, so did the intimacy of that relationship. However, God’s longing for relationship immediately initiated a plan to restore what was lost.

Eve would birth children (through pain) and begin the process of tracing God’s desire to redeem relationship with his creation. The genealogies written throughout the Bible served as a map to point to God’s plan. Throughout the Old Testament we read about the topics of bloodline, offspring, and the blessings that would come through them. The blessing to mankind would come through the offspring of Adam and Eve, Abraham, and Israel and would reveal God’s sovereignty and grace upon humanity. 

God was at work. He gave a promise to Abraham that his children would be greater than the sand and stars (Gen 22:17). 

How was this going to happen?

And what does this have to do with a barren woman?

Immediately following the famous “Suffering Servant” passages (Isaiah 53) comes a promise to women who feel like they are without value because they cannot do what women have done since the time of Eve: bear children. Without offspring, women were cut off from the people of God because their blessing was removed by their inability to bear children. They had no inheritance because they had no offspring, no blessing.

However, with the coming of the Messiah, Isaiah prophesies that the barren woman would sing. She sings because the Messiah has provided her an ability 1) to have children in far greater number than she could ever have biologically, and 2) to receive the coveted blessing, favor, and promise of God. She was no longer cut-off, but was a part of the family. She was honored. She was blessed. Therefore, she has not other response but to sing.

For those who long for children of their own, this message may not bring comfort to a heart that longs for a child. Many desire to adopt or foster, but life and circumstances obstruct the ability to raise a child. Scriptures and prayers bring promises from God held with great hope. Some see the hope fulfilled only to lose the child through miscarriages, stillbirths, or way too young. Perhaps an adoption was terminated at the last moment. No matter how a child a child leaves a mother, the pain must be without comfort.

However, with an accurate understanding of scripture, hope for a family can be found through the fulfillment that came through Christ. If we can view family through a biblical lens, we can see the role of the mother – and the entire family – in a way that brings hope and our own fulfillment. But it can only be seen through Jesus.

Jesus was the fulfillment of all of our desires. All of the promises of scripture point to Him. The physical bloodline from Eve flowed on a cross for us, and provided the ability for it to include all of us as family. No one is left out. No one is more or less because of the ability to have or not have children. Everyone has an equal place at the table because all of us have the ability to carry on a new bloodline to generations to come. It doesn’t come through biology. It comes by the Spirit. It came because of Christ.

In Jesus' earthly life, he begins to interact with a new form of family: an eternal one. Natural and temporal relationships (marriage, children, mother, father, brothers) were no longer the focus because he brought an eternal family together! (Luke 14:26) Blessing would now come because He allowed us entrance back into Eden.

Jesus does not diminish or undermine traditional family values of house and home, marriage and children. His first miracle took place in attendance at a wedding! (John 2) However, Jesus does announce that Kingdom values require greater allegiance to Him than to traditional family members. Remember his response when notified about his biological family? "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" (Matthew 12:48)  Jesus family values required a bond together as family even if they were not biological.

Jesus’ life and ministry focused on those who were abandoned in the traditional familial society: orphans, widows, foreigners, the sick, broken, hurting, poor, hungry, and defiled. Why? Because his bloodline guaranteed that they had a place at His table. Our table. These without even a name suddenly had an inheritance. They were part of the family. They were enough.*

 Jesus introduced a new social system and means of understanding the stages of life. Our life is to be a reflection of an eternal kingdom, not only a biological family. Romans 9:8 tells us that "it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring." Our bloodline was meant to be eternal, through all generations. Children of God's eternal kingdom can only come through the bloodline of Jesus. Therefore, to see family as Jesus did brings to us a family unit that is far greater than sons and daughters (Isaiah 56).

Not everyone will be able to comprehend this promise. We are human. We have desire. We just want to do what we were created to do. However, if we can grasp what Jesus did to society and how he turned family roles upside down, we may begin to think differently about a lot of things, not just motherhood. 

The coming of Jesus allowed us entrance into a life of bringing hope to the world around us. If we can accept that His ways are good, perhaps our viewpoint on this very difficult subject of barrenness and infertility could also change. 

We may not have the ability to bear children or raise them in our household. However, just like the barren woman of Isaiah 54, we can sing because our children will be, like Abraham's, as numerous as the stars. 

As we open our hearts to a new form of family, God will show us how to accept one another for who we were created to be. Isaiah's prophecy continues in verses 14 & 15: "All your children will be taught by the Lord,and great will be their peace." 

When we release our lives, hopes and desires to Him, he will be our ultimate fulfilment. And we will all have the ability to have spiritual children who will be taught by God and given His peace.

God’s promises to us are true. So on this Mother's Day, may we recognize that the ability to have biological children does not make you a mother, Jesus does. 

Everyone is welcome to the family table.  

Sing, barren woman, sing!

And we will sing with you.



*Special thanks to Barry Danylak and his research in “Redeeming Singleness: How the storyline of scripture affirms the single life,” (2010,Crossway Books, Illinois). I consider Barry a friend and his research inspires me to study and understand how everyone is fulfilled through Christ.

The Refugee Crisis in Europe

While I am currently in the US, my heart is in Europe. 

I know you are all following the news and watching the influx of Syrian refugees coming across Europe's boarders. They are fleeing war and tyranny, and looking for hope. 

They are members of a community. White collar, blue collar, professional, athletes, dads, moms, siblings, grandmas & grandpas. They have walked hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles. 

Some have paid a lot of money to people who have made promises to get them into the European Union, only to be left on the side of the road to die. One van's back door was welded shut and the trafficker ran from police when they were stopped. Many are stopped at boarders to be registered, only to be held in detainment centers. They are kicked off of trains and buses. They sleep on the streets, or in a field, or outside of a station, hoping for something new to happen the next day. 

Hoping. 

It's quite amazing what hope can do for us. Especially when we are frightened.

It's quite amazing what fear will do to us, and we are willing to do anything to protect our families. 

It causes people to take off in the middle of the night, gather their families, and set out for something better. There has to be more than war. There has to be more than cities being overtaken. There has to be acceptance. There has to be hope. 

Europe is now at a crossroads: Offer hope or prolong fear.

As I watch my colleagues share love, compassion, and Jesus in the flesh across Europe, I am compelled to pray. I am also compelled to think that Jesus would respond in the same way. He would not see them as a nuisance. He would not reject them. He would not deny their value. 

Jesus would walk with them along the road.
Jesus would sleep next to them on the street. 
Jesus would pick up trash in their camp.
Jesus would make a shelter for them to sleep under. 
Jesus would offer water to wash their babies.
Jesus would fill their arms with food. 
Jesus would hug them. 
Jesus would give them the truth of His word to hold onto.
Jesus would love them. 

Would you join me in praying for Europe?
Join me in praying for these refugees. 
Join me in praying for governments and leaders to respond appropriately.
Join me in praying that the church rise up & be Jesus. 
Join me in praying for church leaders, missionaries, and Christians to do what is right. 
Join me in offering hope to a displaced people. 
Join me, and Jesus, and love them.

Here's a video taken by Europe Missions workers on the Macedonia/Greece border to give you an idea of what is happening in one area of Europe. 

This week the face of Europe has changed. May we change too.

This is not a "please give" post, but most of you will not be able to go to Europe to help. If you want to give, CLICK THIS LINK TO AG GIVING and all funds will go directly to the efforts to share compassion with these refugees via Europe Missions. 

Video courtesy of Peter Good.