A Mother’s day message from Father don

The sage tells us this story.

The young mother set her foot on the path of life.  “Is the way long?” she asked.  And her Guide said, “Yes.  And the way is hard.  And you will be old before you reach the end of it.  But the end will be better than the beginning.”

But the young mother was happy, and she could not believe that anything could be better than these years.  So she played with her children, and gathered flowers with them along the clear streams, and the sun shone on them, and life was good.  The young mother cried: “nothing will ever be lovelier than this!”

Then the night came, and the storm came, and the path was dark, and the children shook with fear and cold.  The mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, “Oh mother! We are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come.  And the mother said, “This is better than the brightness of day----for I have taught my children courage.”

An the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, and the children climbed and grew weary, but the mother said to her young, “A little patience, and we are there.  So the children climbed, and when they reached the top, they said: “We could not have done it without you mother.”  And the mother, when she laid down that night to sleep, looked up to the stars and prayed “This is a better day than the last for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardship.”

And the next day brought strange clouds which darkened the earth---clouds of war, and hate, and evil---and the children groped and stumbled, and the mother said, “Look up.  Lift your eyes to the light.”  The children looked and saw above the clouds an Everlasting Glory, and it guided them and brought them beyond the darkness.  And that night the mother said, “This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God.”

The days went on, months and years past too quickly, and the mother grew old.  She became little and bent.  But her children were tall and strong, and they walked with courage.  When the way was hard, they helped their mother: when the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was as light as a feather.

At last the journeyed together to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide open.  And the mother said:  “I have reached the end of my journey.  Now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them.”

And the children said, “You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.

They stood and watched her as she went alone, and the gates closed after her.  And they said, “We cannot see her now, but she is with us still.  A mother like ours is more than a memory.  She is a Living Presence.”

Yes, parental love is one of the most striking images of the way God loves us.  How does God care for us?  With the unmeasured, unconditional, ever present love of a mother or a father.  This Mother’s Day, let us thank God for mothers who have taught us life’s deepest lessons: how to give and to receive love, how to pray, and how to delight in the good.