This Sunday is celebrated as Mother’s Day in Australia. It provides an opportunity for children to make their mother breakfast-in-bed, to give a bunch of flowers and a ready excuse for a family get together. There is of course also the commercial pressure to buy Mum this or that gift that she may or may not really want.
The odd thing about Mother’s Day is that we set aside just a single day to pause and remember all the amazing things that mothers do each and every day of the year … nurturing, caring, catering, managing, encouraging, helping, sharing common sense. And that’s not to mention that each of us only came to be born into this world through the painful labour of childbirth endured by our mothers.
It’s interesting that when Jesus is wanting to share the news about how his impending death will affect the disciples, he uses the illustration of childbirth. They will feel great pain – just as a mother feels great pain during labour. But just as the pain turns to joy for a mother when her child is born, so the disciples’ pain will turn to joy when they see Jesus alive again after the resurrection.
These pangs of childbirth are what it will take to bring Jesus’ vision for new life fully into being … a vision where every person is welcomed with respect and dignity, where loving and serving one another irrespective of our status or gender or background are the norm, where suspicion and animosity are replaced by kindness and acceptance. Wouldn’t it be great if this vision was lived out not just on a day like Mother’s Day but every day.