Every person in the world has a mother.  Have you ever thought of that?  All the diversity in the world but every person was born in the same way.  God designed this universal uniqueness. His ability to create these kinds of paradoxes is what makes him God. In his plan, we cross over from woman to mother when we nurture and bring forth life.  It is a miraculous thing for God to share this ability, because it is his alone to give.  It speaks volumes of his love and respect of the women he created.  If a woman is unable to bare children, she is not disqualified from this call to bring forth life, for it applies to much more that the physical act of childbearing.  Every mother, every woman is has a unique style about her.  No two are alike.  Motherhood is the same…individual abilities that help to form the next generation.  Some mothers are good.  Some are not.  The fact remains that every mother is designed to bring life to the world around her.  She imprints the people within her life one way or another.  She forms and shapes as the master potter watches and instructs.

This year I know several people facing this day as the “first” without their mothers.  My father is one of these.  My grandmother has left her imprint on his life and on ours.  She had her way, her style of loving and showing love.  She nurtured and brought forth life that was poured out in her own way to those of us she cared about.  It left an impression on my father.  In him, you can see the marks of her artistry as they come forth to us for the next generation.   

I have two mothers to honor this day.  My own mother, who teaches me to be whom God created me to be.  She is my encourager and a quiet confidence within me.  This year has been a particularly bonding time between us as I have faced down death with her by my side.  The marks of her nurture are deep within my being.  They surface and life comes forth even in the midst of a deadly disease. 

My Mother-in Love, Louise is another woman whom God has used to bless me.  For more than 20 years, she has been caring about me.  Now a common road through Cancerland bonds us.  Chemo is not what I would choose to share to unite me with another, but God did not ask me.  Now that we are both on the “other side” of treatment, the imprints of our trial are visible through our scars.  They have created a beauty all their own as life comes forth from them. 

I praise God for my mothers…both of them.  I thank him that I was blessed to know and love my grandmothers as they brought their own personalities to my life.  I am grateful that he invented motherhood as a way to nurture his creation around the world. His blessings to us never cease to amaze me.