Niagra Falls Review: A mother's love is like no other
Yale theologian Miroslav Volf begins a new book on the topic of giving with a dramatic personal story. …
…Volf admits that even though he was deeply, profoundly grateful for the gift of his son, he still had a lingering negative view of a mother who would give up her baby, for any reason.
It just didn't seem right. But during that meeting his mind changed profoundly. The child's birth mother handed him a letter she had written and asked Professor Volf to read it to the boy later. "I did it for you," she wrote to her child. "Someday you will understand." Volf reflects: "She loved him for his own sake and therefore she would rather have suffered his absence if he flourished than to have enjoyed his presence if he languished. Now it was my turn to cry over the beauty and tragedy of her love." …
…In seminary you are taught that Mother's Day is not really a religious holiday or church festival at all but a product of purely commercial interests-the greeting card people, florists, and restaurant owners-an example of how the culture invades and takes over the church, so the faithful thing to do is simply ignore it.
But the preacher learns that it is not a wise thing to do, Popular author Robert Fulghum knows this well. …
…You've got to have the feminine, that is to say, if you want to have an authentic biblical image of God.The prophet Isaiah wrote, "Can a woman forget her nursing child? . . . Yet, I will not forget you." (Isaiah 49:15) And my favourite, from the prophet Hosea: When Israel was a child, I loved him. . . . It was I who taught [them] to walk,I took them up in my arms. . . .I was to them like thosewho lift infants to their cheeks.I bent down to them and fed them. (Hosea 11) So tomorrow as our culture celebrates Mother's Day and as we celebrate or remember with gratitude our mothers I for one will also say a prayer of thanks that there is another One whose love for me is as strong as my mother's.
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