A Mother's Love

What is sweeter than a good mother? I hope you are blessed with such a special, precious gift. "Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living", and since, we all have a mother who brought us into the world. But a woman is not automatically a mother; she only becomes one when she gives birth to a child, as Rajneesh nicely puts it: "The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new".

It is fascinating to discover the multitude of the facets a mom's love has and I will point some of them in the paragraphs below.

A mother's love is the purest love on Earth; it represents the highest level of sacrifice and since her baby is born, till the day she dies, a mother is bound to the fruit of her womb and her love is always poured on her child. Caring from the first heartbeats of her young, through the long feverish nights and counseling the young teenage heart that has been infatuated for the first time.

All these are done without expecting something material in return, except maybe for a loving embrace. How does she know what that baby will treat her like when he grows up? Will he respect her or not? Will he take care of her in her old age or simply forget about her? She doesn't even care, all she cares about is to do her best to keep her child safe, giving him an education, a shelter, all she can do to offer him more and better than she had. As the good old Danish proverb says "A rich child often sits in a poor mother's lap."

In "Beloved" (1987), Toni Morrison adorably puts it in the picture showing that "Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that supposed to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing."

Tender as a baby's kiss is the way a mom can be, still, we see her fighting like a young lioness for the protection of her child, her face expressions almost screaming, don't you dare harm him in any way whatsoever! She has this "mother instinct" buried deep within her soul and mixed with the purest love, it makes her the most powerful human being. There is a German proverb that says, "Who takes the child by the hand takes the mother by the heart.".

Second chances do not exist, because she gives a billion second chances if we can call them so. From the first steps to the maturity years, you will not find a deeper human love. Honoré de Balzac said, "The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness."

To have a mother is a blessing from the Almighty, the more you have her around, the more blessed you are. However, sometimes the more we have that fortune, the more we get used to it, take it for granted, forgetting to appreciate this unique human being. Nothing can make up for times when we would have neglected her or taken her for granted, so learn to appreciate this blessing. Someone has rightly said, "God couldn't be everywhere, so he created mothers."

Washington Irving has said "A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."

In His Bible, God Himself commands "Honor your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you."

I will end with a word for husbands, as Theodore Hesburg wisely affirmed, "The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother."