Mother's Day

For Mother's Day - which is often a difficult day for so many of us - I offer you this essay, written by Mary Martin Wiens, wife of a pastor whose blog I recently discovered.  

by Lesli Summers Stay

And remember as you read, that the Hebrew word for 'HOUSE' is BETH, which is also the word for DAUGHTER. 

So, EVERY woman IS a HOUSE.
  

Every woman is BETHEL, the House of God.

"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 brings back all your scattered parts

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"

You can read Steve Wiems blog at http://tinyurl.com/crwkdwn