Eddie Lowe
Just A Thought
There are few bonds in life that compare to the bond of a mother and her child. In parenthood there is no instruction manual, and for anyone that thinks it easy, think again! A mother, however, has a God-given instinct. My mother was no different. She could read me and knew when I was sad or hurt. She would know even when I hid it from others. Her golden words to me were: “What’s wrong with my boy?” And, no matter my age, I could pour my heart out and it seemed she knew already.
A Mother’s Struggle
It has been said that a woman comes closer to death while birthing a child than at any other point in her life. Motherhood starts out as a struggle. Immediately after conception the struggle begins as her body changes in order to nurture — her body won’t ever be the same. And then there is the struggle of delivery. I was blessed to be bedside to see the birth of my children, and I’ve never felt more helpless. It was their mom who bore the pain and walked through the shadows of death to give them life.
As we read Genesis chapter four we see the ancestral mother of all start her journey of motherhood. I’d advise you read what happened in chapter three and you’ll see the plight that Eve had just come from. In chapter three, we see the first eviction notice served, and God himself issued it. Adam and Eve were told to leave the garden and where they began their family it seems nobody knows. I look at that from a parental perspective and that scares me! Imagine the struggle of beginning a family after you’d been evicted! If you read further in Genesis chapter four, you’ll see that Eve’s first child wasn’t exactly the model child. Tragedy befell them when the firstborn Cain killed the second child Abel. Eve could truly say “the struggle is real!”
A Mother’s Strength
When we read Genesis 4:25, we see the strength Eve had. God blessed them with Seth, which means “appointed.” Eve basically said, “God appointed me another child after Abel was killed.” There is such underlying power shown by Eve. We witness her moving on from a tragedy as we see her continue motherhood.
My mom was a strong woman with a heart of gold. She could be firm, but at the same time she would be fair. As a child, I didn’t understand why she was tired all the time. In the evenings, she was there. At bedtime, she’d leave for work and when I got up, a sitter was there until around 4pm. As I grew older, I realized she worked at one hosiery mill on the third shift and another on the first shift. Not only was she working two jobs, but both jobs were boarding socks. To see mama’s strength, I’d ask you to look up that job. In later years, she’d tell me she did it all so we’d have a roof over our heads.
A Mother’s Shelter
It is a known fact that a mother hen will cover her chicks in a downpour of hail to shelter them to the point of her death. When I was a boy I saw my mother’s love as a shelter. Even after becoming a man, I found as I talked to my mother that it was the one place I could “take off the cape” because it seemed the weight of being an adult required Superman strength.
A Mother’s Swan Song
The passing of my mother was no doubt the hardest moment of my life. Folklore says that before a swan dies, it sings a most beautiful song. As my mother was passing, her wish was to have all her children under her roof once more. She passed one September evening, and her final wish came true. My sisters and I all came home, for we knew her time was near. One by one, we entered her room for our final visit and some last words.
Upon entering her room, my mind flooded with childhood memories. Here lay the toughest woman I’d ever known, and cancer was about to take her. I longed to curl up in the bed with her as we spoke our final words. I was the only boy with three sisters so I was mama’s boy. Her final words were few, but she and I had an unspoken language. Just being together in silence, our hearts communed. After her burial, I’d go to her grave, sometimes at night. I’d caress her gravestone and speak to her. Sometimes, tears would flow and even now when I go, no words need be spoken, for a mother’s love transcends even death. Before her casket closed, I whispered to her, “I’ll see you on the other side.” And by God’s grace, I will.
