Pastor's Column 5/12/2024 - Mother's Day

PASTOR’S COLUMN

“Then the man-Adam-named his wife Eve, because she would be mother of all living.”

Genesis 3:20, NLT          

 “Simply, “Mother!”    

Across America, in less than an eight-week period, some 5,300 institutions of higher learning will hold graduation programs for an average of 62% of students who successfully complete their programs of study. The colleges and universities these students graduate from, will provide them with lasting memories and, hopefully, life-long values that can help them in life, going forward. They also may be introduced to the meaning of the term, alma mater, which in Latin means literally “my mother.” The term goes back to the time when the place of learning was highly regarded as the “birth-place,” or “origin” of knowledge and wisdom.” In the simplicity of is meaning, the term still resonates with beauty and respect. It well may be that when the term entered the English vocabulary, there was a sense that the honor and respect given Eve in the Biblical narrative, inspired the Latin term.  Eve’s name in the Hebrew (Khawah) is similar to the word (Khavah), which means “to give life.”  The tribute we give our mothers never should be casual, nor merely the result of a civil holiday. God made our mothers to be the guardians of human life, and it is with joy, respect; and reverence to God, the we honor her (and her blessed memory) our living days. The pronouncement of Eve’s great and irreplaceable appointment in all of human civilization, is ours to remember and respect. Our mothers are the great channels of civilization. They are the first houses we will ever occupy on earth. They, first hear and interpret our cries; affirm our smiles; feed and care for our needs. We know that one of the final acts of Jesus, while dying on the cross, was to entrust the care of His blessed mother, Mary to the youngest of the disciples, John. “Behold your mother,” Jesus told John in the best voice He could, while writing in excruciating pain. (Jn. 19:27, NKJV). A poet once said, “In the face of one, we see the face of many.” There hardly has been a time, I have looked in the face of any mother, and not seem my own mother’s precious face. The mother each of us has come to know; biological or gifted, is that person alone. We simply say, “My mother!”