"God's Story"
Jacqueline KroekerMay 12/13, 2007
Happy Mother’s Day and I really mean that! I’ve got to be honest here and tell you that getting a message ready for this sort of celebration was really difficult for me, and I really didn’t know why initially, but as I started to think about it a bit more I finally clued into what it was that was nagging me or bothering me.
And this is it… We live in a fallen world of complicated joy.
Special times like Mother's Day or Father's Day just remind me of this complexity. While I enjoy speaking on a special day like this, the complicated reality of our broken world jumps up and trips me up. Let’s face it, while some might be rejoicing on this day, others will hurt and the reality of their circumstances will bring sadness.
Suddenly, what seems so simple like celebrating Mother’s Day becomes profoundly complicated. But I believe that God wants us to honor those to whom honor is due. (Romans 13:7) and that’s what I’d like to do today.
How many of you have this picture of your mom being…an all-out amazing woman? A mom that has stopped at nothing to nurture you, love you, teach you? How many of you have had that kind of mom? Just raise your hands. Now think about a particular moment, a story in your life that only reaffirms this picture that you have of her. This incredibly, wonderful, woman.
The picture that comes to my mind is my mom waiting outside my school classroom with a set of clean clothes. I threw up for the first day of school every year until I was in grade six. My mom knew I would and so she would send me off to school, she’d rush off and get there before me, I didn’t have a clue, and she would wait outside the classroom hoping I wouldn’t throw up, and when I did she’d be ready with a pair of clean cloths and didn’t make me feel bad about it.
Another picture…In the 2nd grade my mom came every single day of my entire school year at lunch time (that’s 8 months!) and she and I would sit together in the playground bench, in the freezing cold (I was living in NYC at the time). I was so shy and so afraid of all the other kids that I didn’t want to eat with them. So she’d come and keep me company. She’d wait till I was done my lunch and take me back to my class. Remarkable.
She’s a woman with an amazing ability to love sacrificially, to put aside her own desires, longings and aspirations for the sake of her family and especially her children. When it comes to her kids she will stop at nothing.
I think it’s precisely because our mothers have been so giving, so loving, so courageous so tenacious in the way they’ve raised us and loved us, that the majority of us are so fiercely loyal to them. I know I am. My mom, a five foot nothing, petite, Latina woman is the most amazing woman in my eyes. I could tell you story after story of the marvellous, selfless, benevolent things she has done for me. But that really wouldn’t be the whole truth. There is the other side of that isn’t there? I am fiercely loyal to her but I’m not blind to her faults and neither are my kids to mine.
It’s really amazing how this same outstanding woman has had the ability to drive me insane and I’m not telling you something that she doesn’t know herself. Both my kids would tell you the same thing about me.
There have been moments where I’m sure my 22 year old and my 20 year old have shaken their heads and thought, “I can’t believe my mom just said that” or “she did what”? Let me give you a brief description of what it’s like to have a Latina mother…keep in mind that I’m one myself.
A Latina mom is known for always saying what’s on her mind especially to her kids. There are no apologies for that. Sometimes she can be so downright tactless it can be really amusing. She will not hold back in telling you, as her son or daughter, what she thinks about your life and how you’re managing it. She is not afraid to tell you what she thinks about your friends, your spouse, your children, your girlfriend or boyfriend, or even your pastor.
She doesn’t care if she angers you, frustrates you, offends you, threatens you…she’s your mom till death and it does not matter if you 16 or 40, she will not hold back.
Her love for her children is so fierce, so dedicated, so devoted, so passionate that you take priority over anything and anyone. There are no exceptions to that. She will defend you, protect you, spoil you till her dying day.
She loves powerfully, unapologetically, purposely and intensely. That in a nut-shell is a Latina mother. And to top it all off…she is feisty and possessive. That’s the whole picture.
Almost 14 years ago I left my mother’s side to come to Canada. That was the most heart-wrenching moment of her life. Not only did I leave but I brought my children with me. That was tough for her but she knew God was asking her to let us go and she did.
Coming to Canada was really hard for me too because at home, in Ecuador, my mother really spoiled me…really bad…so bad, that I didn’t know how to do the things mothers tend to do. Everything was done for me and my children. She looked after me and raised my kids, that’s the ways things happen for some people in Latin America. So the greatest concern my mom had for me when to Canada was, “how would I be a mom to my own children”.
I had to learn to become a mom to my children. I was more like a sister to them than a mom. My daughter was 8, my son 6 and I was 26 when we arrived in Canada. My mother was so concerned for me and the kids that they sent my baby sister to come along with me to help me. She had dropped out of high school when she was in grade 10 and as part of her punishment she had to learn to do house chores. I never did house chores. So my sister came down with me and stayed for 6 months before moving States. That was tough. So, that gives you a glimpse of how inadequate I was as a mom.
I wasn’t a nurturer like my mom I sent my kids to school even if they were sick. I wasn’t sentimental like her, I only have a handful of things that they have given to me over the year…only the really nice stuff, I wasn’t a great cook, my kids and I ate cinnamon buns for most suppers, I didn’t know how to use a washing machine…and I certainly wasn’t as sensible as my mom…my kids can tell you about the crazy things I’ve done, like the time they were driving each other crazy and came to me telling on one another, I had gotten so sick of it that I said to them, “okay you know what, if you really hate each other that much, if you can’t stand being next to one another then here’s your opportunity. I want you to beat each other up, right now. Go on, just hit each other. I want to see blood. They both looked at me wanting to see if I was serious and I pretended I was. So they started hitting each other like this. Then I insisted that they really hit each other. And then they started crying and saying, “I love you sister…I love you brother”. They never hit each other again.
Or the time we were so bored on a Sunday, winter afternoon, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves, so out of the blue I said, “Josiah, Giuseppe how about you guys try to touch each other’s eyeballs with your tongues…we had a blast that afternoon. We spent three whole hours trying to see who would muster the courage to do that first.
Or the time I knew I needed to speak to my son about sex and I didn’t know how to do it, so I got him in the car, locked the doors and drove away so he would have no where to escape and we had our sex talk. Actually I did all the talking and he just kept his head low.
Four years ago when my mom came to visit us, our daughter was getting married, we had just finished supper and she said to me…”My daughter, look at your kids, (they were sitting watching TV), look at them…they’re great kids…look at you…you’re a woman, that was her way of saying I’d matured…and then she said”…God’s heard my prayers…”what were your prayers Mom” I asked…
Before I share her response I’d like us to look at a story in the book of Acts 9:36-43. This passage of Scripture speaks of a great woman, a woman who is given no speaking part in the Bible and who, when her story begins, is already deceased. Her name is Tabitha, or Dorcas if you prefer the Greek name. We don’t know much about Tabitha, I’m pretty sure she was a single woman as a matter of fact. And she was a great woman in her community but she became sick and died and the people whose lives she had touched could not bear to lose her to death. Her body according to the Jewish tradition was washed and prepared and they put her in the upstairs room.
Let’s remember that the book of Acts describes to us the beginning of the church. The disciples of Jesus were speaking openly about the God they served despite persecution, and many who heard the Good News of Christ believed. Dorcas was one of those women. A woman who had become a follower of Jesus Christ. And Scripture says she was full of good works. What she did for the people in her community was so compelling, so amazing that the people couldn’t handle not having her around. When she died the good works ceased. The charities... the labors....the words… they were done.
At her death the people had the responsibility to bury the person on that very day and to put the body into a tomb. To not do so was considered extremely unusual and here is a community of people that wash and prepare Tabitha's body, put her in the upstairs room and then send two people to go and look for the apostle Peter who was performing miracles around the country side in the power of His Savior Jesus Christ. They knew he was nearby and that he might in the power of the Holy Spirit bring this woman back to them. Ressurect her. And so they send two men to go find him. Now Peter is about 12 to 15 miles away. He’s on foot remember. It may take him a whole day to come to them and that's if Peter is able to leave immediately. So this community is making a decision to not bury this woman immediately in the hope that God would bring her back to them. They were willing to go to any length to get her back. She was too wonderful to lose!
These people could not imagine their lives, their communities without Dorcas. Can you imagine the affect that this woman had on those men and women and children? When she died, they wept, they mourned, the lamented, they were bewildered. They were inconsolable in their grief. Their Hearts ached .
Why? Here’s why…she was like a mother to them. They tell Peter of the amazing things she had done for them, showing him the robes and other clothing she had made for the people. They were saying this is how she loved us. But if truly Tabitha was like a mother and I believe she was, then she not only worked with her hands for them but I also believe she spoke with her mouth words of encouragement of comfort and even of correction.
Let me bring you back to my story…Mom…what did you pray for, I asked and this was her response…“that in my absence, through my inadequacies, and in the midst of my faults God would provide you with women who would be to you what I can’t be. And then she prayed and thanked God for the Tabitha’s in my life. Women who guided me, shaped me, scolded me, challenged me, provided for me, encouraged, comforted and on many occasions brought me back to follow Christ Jesus.
You know, unlike a few heroic women of Scripture, courageous risk-takers that we read about in the Bible, Tabitha never did anything inherently risky or courageous or even marginally heroic. She simply devoted herself to doing good and I believe shaping the spiritual lives of the men and women she was in contact with and that’s what the Tabitha’s in my life have been for me. Some have been married some unmarried, some have had children, others have not, some have been seasoned in their faith others have not, some have been older than me, others younger.
Just imagine with me for a moment, how different our lives would be had it not been for the influence of our mothers and the Tabitha’s in our lives. Just like the people in Acts, I can’t even imagine my life without them.
Today is mother’s day. I’d like to encourage each one of you to celebrate and honor your mothers. And think about the Tabitha’s in your life and celebrate them. The most generous thing my mom did for me was to pray there would be Tabitha’s in my life. The most generous thing I can do for my children is to pray for Tabitha’s in their lives. And the best thing any one of us can do for one another is to be Tabitha’s in each other’s lives..
