Mother's Day 2012

By Lunminthang Haokip *

Kim: a mother for all seasons

Original Mother's Day: To different people, Mother's Day means different things. Celebrities are asked on this occasion to say something about their mothers. They wax eloquent on the emotional attachments they share with the ladies who made them what they are today. Rich or poor, learned or otherwise, all mothers feel important and special on the second Sunday of May every year. In 1870, one American lady, Julia Ward Howe, founded Mother's Day as a pacifist reaction to American Civil War and Franco-Prussian War. After a long gap, in 1908, another American, Anna Jarvis celebrated Mother's Day in memory of her beloved mom. The solemnity of the occasion was retained till 1914 after which, like the commercialization of St. Valentine's Day, Mother's Day was observed every year worldwide to suit national and regional tastes and fancies.

The First Mother: Eve was the first woman on earth. She was created to be the first lady of Eden garden after God saw that Adam's singular existence there did not make a complete set. Genesis 1: 27, "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them". Verse 28, "And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth".

The Curse on Mothers: The blessing was total and clear. But sin made a back-door entry through temptation on Eve. Privileges of Eden were forfeited. Because the mother of mankind disobeyed God's warning, "But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:17)", the first parents were out of divine favour. Their spirits became dead. They never repented and left Eden with the heavy load of God's curse on Eve, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shalt be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee (Gen 3:16)". Descendants of Eve inherit this curse by virtue of being a woman. Three "rings" define a bride's life: Engagement ring, wedding ring and suffe-ring. A housewife's suffering is more tense and severe in India. Indian Reality show, "Satyamev Jayate" reveals all.

The Cost of Sin: The devil lured Eve to believe that eating the forbidden fruit would gain her the knowledge of good and evil on par with god's (Gen 3:5). It turned out to be true in a perverted way. Having succumbed to temptation, Eve's eyes were opened. She got the knowledge of good and evil. But the tragedy was, the good she knew she could not do; and the evil she knew she could not avoid. The frustrating dilemma still works today in every male or female of woman-born who had not sought the power of the Resurrection of Jesus to undo the habitual compulsions.

Having a heart hardened like a rock, Eve's unrepentant nature manifested in the character of her first-born, Cain, who went a step further in disobedience and killed his own brother, Abel. The first ever murder was committed by the son of Eden-evicted Eve. When the protagonist in the first human blood-shed proudly confessed his sin in Genesis 4:13, "And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear", it was a case of saying too little too late.

Lunminthang speaking on Mother's Day at Tamu

God Offered A Deal: Women, the better-half of the wonderful pair of masterpieces of the Almighty's creation, were slated to scale greater heights in achievement than just teeter under the captivity of the adversary. Not desiring to see one He created in His own image to suffer extreme pain and go waste to be ruined in the Eve-syndrome, the Maker offered a fresh deal. But God being God, could not compromise and take back His pronouncement on the calamitous rebellion of Eden. So He laid down a condition womenfolk could only ignore at their own peril, "Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness and sobriety (1 Timothy 2:15)". The verse should not be taken literally. It's divine offer to restore the pre-temptation privileged position women had in the Almighty's sight .

Mother of Faith: The goodwill Joseph generated as an Administrator under Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, was forgotten long after the "man with excellent spirit" died. God increased the Israelites in Egypt. Egyptians were apprehensive of the growing might of the chosen people. So Pharaoh ordered butchery of every male Jewish child at the time of birth. God-fearing midwives somehow saved infant Moses. At that critical juncture, a woman of faith in the person of Jochebed, the Levite mother of Moses, swung to action. Scarce able to hide her infant son of lethal target, she put him in an ark of bulrushes and laid the ark by the bank of the river.

The child landed up in the hands of the barren daughter of the king. In divine-directed dramatic turn of events, Jochebed was appointed to nurse her own son in the palace. There the godly mother groomed growing Moses not to be carried away by the comforts and perks of royalty but be the champion of future exodus of his own enslaved compatriots from the clutches of Egypt. If Moses, later, "by faith refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season (Hebrews 11:24 & 25) ", it was the spiritual influence of her mother's unflinching faith in the living God.

Ruth The Gentile Woman: The unfaith of Elimelech and Naomi who went down from Bethlehem, the house of bread, to the heathen land of Moab, in the wake of occurrence of a passing famine, resulted in entry of a gentile woman in their family as a daughter-in-law. The chips were down for Ruth. Her husband left her young. Her mom-in-law pestered her to go back to her parental home. But she had what her in-laws badly lacked - faith in Jehovah God. Her simple reply to Naomi's pressure to severe links after widowhood was, "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God (Ruth 1:16)".

One thing led to another. She redeemed her late husband's inheritance by getting re-married to Boaz, and finally made a name for herself in the most prestigious lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5). Coming from a family who knew no God, widowed to cope with an initially nagging mom-in-law and left to fend for herself in a society prejudiced against women and gentiles, it was no mean feat on the part of Ruth to have a whole chapter in the Holy Bible dedicated to her name.

Fruit of Holiness: While the Bible showed no indication to venerate her, Mary, certainly was "the blessed one among women (Luke 1:28)" whose name was and is synonymous with virginity. Any other girl of her age, in her place, would have been troubled when the Angel of the Lord said she would "conceive outside wedlock, and bring forth a son (Luke 1:31)". But Mary was made of stronger stuff. She had faith in the Lord, she kept herself holy and had the sobriety to respond to the Angel humbly, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word(Luke 1:38)". No wonder she later expressed, "My soul doth magnify the Lord (Luke 1:46)" and remained the favoured one.

A Woman Of Substance: US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is known for her wits. When her hubby Bill was the Prez of America, one day on the highway, after filling gas, Hillary talked to a petrol-pump assistant for quite some time while Bill was waiting inside the car. The Prez, a trifle annoyed, questioned wifey as to why she did what she did. Smart Hillary retorted, "I was engaged to the petrol-pump assistant but things did not work out". Bill was quick to score a brownie point right there, "Don't you think you are lucky in marrying me? You could have ended up as the wife of a petrol pump assistant". "Never", said Hillary, " If I married that man, I would have made him the Prez of USA and you would have probably ended up as the petrol pump assistant". Some woman!

Influence of A Spiritual Wife: When Billy Graham, married to Seminary colleague, Ruth Graham, started out as a struggling Evangelist, he hardly had enough money to pay his child's school fee. Having a ten dollar and another 20 dollar bill only in his pocket, he thought he would put $ 10 in the Church service offertory bag and keep $ 20 for the school fee. But by mistake, he fished out $ 20 when he was approached and half-heartedly offered the bigger bill. When he narrated the incident to Ruth, she corrected the preacher immediately, "Billy, you thought you put $ 20 in the offertory. But God will accept the offering as $ 10 only". Billy never forgot the wise and sharp counsel throughout his later life.

The Best Wish Of A Mother: When it comes to faith, charity and better choice, few could equal Salome, the wife of Zebedee. She had the faith to say to Jesus, "Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on the right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom (Matt. 20:21)". Lesser mortals would have desired the two sons, James and John, to serve their parents in old age. But Salome chose the best profession for her sons – to follow the Saviour to immortality. The brothers became insiders among disciples. James died first. He would have sat on the left side of the Lord in the kingdom in a round table. John died last to sit on the right side of Jesus. Faith of the dotting mother paid rich heavenly dividends.

Lunminthang Haokip

* Lunminthang Haokip, a resident of Old Lambulane, Imphal, is a regular contributor to e-pao.net. He can be contacted at lunminthang(dot)haokip(at)gmail(dot)com or his blog here
This article was webcasted on May 20, 2012.