MOTHERING SUNDAY

This year we will all reflect on how the pandemic has made us realise how much we each depend on those who love and care for us.
We have all seen significant changes to women’s working patterns and child rearing in recent years. Now we expect a much more equal partnership role with both parents involved in caring for children and the home and women typically combining paid work with mothering. This completely accords with how the Bible understands love, relationships, and parenting. The Bible understands how deeply God loves all of humankind and this reaches its culmination in Jesus tell- ing us talk to God as a parent. In 1 John 1 we are told, “God is love and those who live in love live in God, and he in them”. Despite all the dysfunctional relationships in the Old Testament, the role of mothers is honoured: Sarah the mother who waited for her son Isaac, Naomi the mother who shared her faith with Obed, Hannah the mother who kept her promise to God and brought up Samuel to be a priest. In the New Testament, Elizabeth believed in miracles and brought up John the Baptist. Our beloved Mary is “blessed amongst women”.

Let us rejoice in mothering and all the many ways that mothers change the world through the way they bring up their children.

Jenny Hosker