Honoring our mothers is one of the delights for many of us of Mother’s Day, which in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand falls on this coming Sunday. Here is a litany I wrote several years ago that I thought some of you would appreciate.
Loving and nurturing God, we thank you for mothers.
For all they mean or have meant to us.
We thank you for the love they have shown and the care they have given.
For the many times they gave us hugs and held us close.
Loving and nurturing God we thank you for the qualities of mothers.
For their patience, their kindness, concern and understanding, in so many ways reflecting who you are.
We thank you for the part they play in our lives,
and for this special day of saying ‘thank you’ to them.
Loving and nurturing God we thank you for the wonder of your mothering.
As a mother protects her children, you watch over us day by day.
We thank you for your arms which always encircle and protect us,
Your hands shield and deliver us from harm.
Loving God, we pray for those for whom Mother’s day brings heartache rather than celebration.
We pray for those who have never known their mother or whose mothers have died.
We thank you for your mothering heart and your tender love ,
Which nurtures all who feel abandoned and lost.
We wait with those who long to be mothers but as yet have not had their own children.
We grieve with those who ache because they will never be mothers.
We thank you for their mothering hearts which long to be expressed.
Lord in your mercy, mother us all with your love.
We pray for those who struggle with the way their children have chosen to live their lives.
And grieve with those who are orphaned or have a difficult relationship with their mother.
We thank you that when we long for a mother’s love you do not abandon us.
Lord in your mercy, mother us all with your love.
May all of us have the comfort of knowing that your mothering love is constant,
Your understanding is perfect and your compassion is never-ending.
We thank you that you gave birth to all of us with delight and joy,
Lord in your mercy mother us all with your love.
Amen
This prayer was inspired by and adapted from prayers I found on this site Unfortunately these prayers are no longer available.
This is the last of a series that I have posted on God as mother this week as a preparation for Mother’s day. Here are the other posts:
Meditation Monday – Connecting to the Mother heart of God
Biblical Maternal Images of God by Shiao Chong
Maternal Images of God – a video – reposted 2019
Let’s Get Creative – Honouring Our Mothers
By Sheridan Voysey —
Slowly. Attentively. Without rush or hurry. One foot placed gently after the other, leaving a single line of prints on the shore. Waves slide over the sand like soft blue bed sheets and leave frothy white bubbles as they recede.
Teach me, God. Teach me.
One last retreat day on Lindisfarne Island before my pilgrimage to Durham begins. I started it this morning watching dark clouds flee from an expanding horizon of blazing orange, and after early prayers at St Mary’s Church, had returned for breakfast as beams of light hit the ocean. Now I walk on the island’s windswept north shore.
I feel the bubbles pop beneath my feet and think about church this morning. We’d read verses from Proverbs 8, where wisdom cries out to be noticed. “I was born before the oceans were created,” she says, before mountains were formed and the first handfuls of soil scattered. And as an artist’s soul can be revealed through her paintings, so this divine wisdom can be glimpsed in creation:
“I was there when he established the heavens…”
“I was there when he set the clouds above…”
“I was there when he set the limits of the seas…”
Attend, Sheridan.
I stop still and face the ocean.
Attend to what you see.
The salty north wind hits my face, powerful yet benign. It tousles my hair and chills my wet feet. I am alone on the beach. There isn’t another soul for miles. There are no boats, boardwalks, jetties, or hotels—just raw sea, sky, and shore.
Open my eyes, God. Show me more.
I gaze at those waves, so dark and choppy. Another world lies beneath them: schools of salmon and mackerel surging to and fro; shimmering pilchard, cod, redfish, and herring. In those waters are delicacies like lobsters and mussels, and, further out, dolphins, stingrays, and minke whales, and waves so large they can drive tankers to the sea floor.
And the sky above me—a myriad of wonders lies beyond it: millions of suns and trillions of planets in our Milky Way, a galaxy that is but one of 100 billion others, all twirling round like carousels.
I take a scoop of sand and let it slip through my fingers. Each grain is a wonder in itself. For if we were to dive into one we would glide past buzzing atoms, sail through electron storms, crack open protons and find our universe in miniature form, with quarks dashing around in nanoscopic space like shooting stars.
This world is beautifully arranged, finely designed, intricately tuned, wisely made. And to think: if Earth were a little closer to the sun or if gravity were dialed down a few notches, the whole wonderful thing would dissolve in a second.
“I stared at my screen this morning,” my wife Merryn said to me during a difficult season a few years ago. “And I wondered if this is it.”
“If this is what?” I’d asked, watching her chin quiver.
“If this is all my life will be since we’re not going to have children—just spreadsheets and numbers and analysis of data. Dry. Boring. Meaningless.”
And with an unusual boldness, I’d said that was a lie. Merryn’s life would never be meaningless, pointless, or futile. Neither would mine, as unsure as I was about my own identity and calling; nor my readers, for whom I would also walk tomorrow, heading off on a quest to discover who we can become when life doesn’t go as planned.
Because while I have many questions over its tremors and trials, I still believe ours is a meaningful world. Blazing orange skies speak of it, I hear it whispered in the sea and the sky and the shore. And while there may be times when we feel like jigsaw puzzles thrown in the air, wondering who we are and why we’re here, the One who made the heavens and the seas made us with infinite wisdom too.
The same hands that made the galaxies crafted us in the womb.
Making us as significant as the stars.
…
This post was adapted from Sheridan Voysey’s new book The Making of Us: Who We Can Become When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned (Thomas Nelson).
Sheridan Voysey is a writer, speaker, broadcaster, and author of The Making of Us, Resurrection Year, Resilient and other books. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 2 and other international networks, and has featured on BBC Breakfast, BBC News, Day of Discovery, and publications like The Sunday Telegraph. He is married to Merryn, and lives and travels from Oxford, United Kingdom. Find him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and get his free eBooks and podcasts at www.sheridanvoysey.com
by Christine Sine
Does God care about physical health or only about our spiritual wellbeing?” It is a good question to ask ourselves especially now as many of us are struggling with the death of Rachel Held Evans and why God did not respond to the prayers of so many for healing. I have often struggled with this question – especially when I worked in poor communities in Africa and Asia and watched children die in my arms. I still struggle with it every time I watch friends die of cancer or infections like Rachel before they have reached the “three score years and ten” the Bible talks about. I struggle with it too when I observe the devastating impact of environmental degradation on all our health.
It does make me aware however that there is still evil in our world. It is sometimes played out in the spiritual world but also in the physical world of our bodies. We live in that in between time when the full working out of Jesus redemptive work has not yet been manifested.
I love this interesting reference to health care workers that I found. It is not in the Protestant Bible but in the Appocrypha, those books between the Old and New Testament that are considered by some to be a part of the Biblical text.
God Does Care
From the time the children of Israel came out of Egypt God showed concern for their physical as well as their spiritual well being. However God’s prescription for health was always very different from that of the surrounding cultures. During Moses life, the Papyrus Ebers written about 1552 B.C. provided many of the standard treatments for disease. Drugs included “lizards’ blood, swines’ teeth, putrid meat, stinking fat, moisture from pigs ears, goose grease, asses’ hoofs, excreta from animals, including human beings, donkeys, antelopes, dogs, cats and even flies.”
Not quite our idea of good medicine and not God’s either.
However God’s prescription for good health doesn’t necessarily look like a physician’s prescription either. Pills and surgery are not at the top of the list. And as with so much of what God does, good health doesn’t usually come with the waving of a magic wand and miraculous healings.
God Believes in Preventative Measures.
Health and healing, the practice of medicine and the principles of hygiene in the Hebrew world, all fell under the Levitical mantle, part of the religious framework of life. Medicine and the care of the sick is part of the priestly calling a life set aside in service to God.
It was the Levites to whom God gave the principles for health and hygiene. They were responsible for both the physical and spiritual health of the community. Physical cleanliness was for the priests a symbol of spiritual cleanliness. One depended on the other and both were performed by those people whose lives were set aside to serve God. God gave them detailed instructions for basic cleanliness and sanitation that if followed today would greatly increase the level of hygiene in many a struggling nation. It would be hard for us to imagine our church workers as garbage disposal experts or as sanitation workers, yet for the Levites this all came under their jurisdiction.
God’s health laws encourage us to think responsibly about what we eat, how we act and how we treat the environment around us. Many of the laws of Leviticus are good preventative health directives that we still use today. These regulations include nutrition, environmental laws and behaviour – the three primary factors that influence the health of any individual or community. Others are guidelines for how the most vulnerable in society are to be cared for. We shouldn’t over eat, abuse our bodies with drugs and alcohol or pollute the environment and blame God for the consequences to our health.
God Made Us To Be Healthy
Nothing speaks more highly of God’s desire for healing than the incredible systems of protection and repair within our own bodies. The immune system cures most of the illnesses that attack us. Wounds heal, bones knit together and tissue repairs itself in miraculous ways we rarely think about unless something goes wrong. Fascinatingly this system is enhanced by bacteria in our gut and in our environments. In Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child From an Oversanitized World, Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta, document how microbes, especially those in our gut improve our health and that of our children. It is fascinating. At best doctors and nurses assist God’s healing work yet we rarely thank God for the miracle of how we are created.
Unfortunately in our imperfect world, corrupted by sin and disease, these systems don’t always work as God intended them too and sometimes our attempts to help – as with antibiotics which destroy the normal flora in the gut that helps build our immune system – can contribute to the problem.Yet even here God has stepped in to help and provided other elements to assist the healing process. Most modern medicines originate from medicinal plants and herbs that are a part of God’s wonderful creation.
Interestingly the Greek word most commonly translated save in the New Testament SOZO can also be translated heal. It means to heal, preserve, save, make whole. Central to God’s model of health and wholeness is reconciliation to God. Healing depended not only on the taking of medicine but primarily on obedience to God’s word and commandments. Healing from a Christian perspective is the process of moving towards wholeness in body, soul and spirit not just as individuals but as a worldwide community. The purpose of medicine is to support and encourage human wholeness in every respect but it should be used in conjunction with other health measures.
Physical and Spiritual Healing Linked.
For early followers of Christ, spiritual and physical health were linked as one ministry too. In the early Judeo – Christian church, healing was considered part of the religious function of the community. Monetary compensation was forbidden. In contrast the Graeco-Roman tradition professionalized medicine and saw it as a vocation to be monetarily compensated – the model that we now embrace.
The rapid growth of the early church was probably a result of its power to heal, to cast out demons and to create communities of mutual care. Interestingly, this was closely linked to an acceptance of suffering as an identification with the sufferings of Christ and an understanding of physical illness as part of a larger paradigm in which God’s grace works through human weakness. Throughout most of Christian history, the church provided centers for healing and cared for the sick and the suffering. In the Middle Ages the monasteries were centers of healing and provided hospice care for the dying. They were often famous for their herb gardens which provided a broad range of medicinal substances that were produced for the use both within the monastic community as well as in the outside secular community.
In this framework, the medical attendant was seen as a servant to the poor and the sick, someone who came to relieve their pain, to heal their hurts to comfort their concerns. Spiritual and physical health and healing walked hand in hand, separate parts of a whole person.
The Cross is probably the most powerful symbol of and power for healing in the world. Its redeeming and transforming power brings healing to body soul and spirit – and beyond that it brings healing to communities, and eventually will bring healing to our entire broken world.
The taking of communion is another powerful symbol of healing. In many churches healing services are Eucharistic, deliberately linking our need for healing to confession, repentance and forgiveness. (1 Cor 11:27-34) Baptism too, because it infuses a person with new life, the life of Christ, can drive out before it all the powers of sickness and death. (Rom 6: 1-14)
James 5:13-16 lists other important symbols of healing we need to pay attention to. Praying for the sick, often associated with laying on of hands, anointing with oil, singing psalms and hymns, confession and forgiveness are all practices that can encourage the healing process.
Observing the liturgical calendar is another way that God’s people can find God’s healing. “By connecting to the seasons of the church year we enter into a rhythm that focuses every day and every season very intentionally on the One who gives all of life meaning and purpose. By celebrating through the structures of the Church we actually are given the forms we need to become whole and we are given the formulas to make whole every human experience.”
What Is Your Response?
I don’t understand why Rachel Held Evans died anymore than I understand why God allows us to continue to pollute our planet and show indifference to the deaths each day of thousands from hunger.
God does will healing not just for us but for all human kind. Incredibly we are asked to become active participants in the process and bring God’s healing and wholeness to others.
Prayerfully consider what God may ask of you to bring wholeness into a part of your life or that of others.
By Catherine Lawton —
Not as many May first flowers here
as in places where I lived as a child.
There, roses burst, clambered, and climbed already,
enough garden posies to revel in—make chains
for garlands and necklaces, plenty to fill
baskets to take and surprise the neighbors.
Now I could fill baskets with a few dandelions,
chokecherry and crab apple blossoms.
Or I can let my cup overflow with gracious responses,
pick loving words to give as lavish surprises.
by Christine Sine
Pain has formed a significant part of the tapestry of my life over this last year. A cracked tooth that has gone undiagnosed for 40 years flared into prominence. My previously episodic bouts of pain became a nightly struggle to sleep through the throbbing in my face. Unfortunately the diagnosis has not meant that the pain has gone away. The chronic inflammation has caused damage to my trigeminal nerve and it is possible that the pain, though alleviated with medications, will never go away.
I hate pain, and when it is as persistent as this I am inclined to regard it with disfavour not awe. However as I sat and contemplated my question “have you had your dose of awe and wonder today?” it was my pain that came to mind.
Pain Tells Us there is Something Wrong
I hate pain but I am glad it exists. Thank God for pain! says Paul Brand in his important book The Gift Nobody Wants. Dr Brand started working with leprosy patients in India after WWII and spent most of his life treating people who felt no pain. By the time he saw them some had lost digits, limbs, noses. They suffered from chronic infections and ulcers, often unaware that a simple cut had become infected.
At the other end of the spectrum are those with chronic pain, the legacy of phantom limbs that refuse to be silenced or, as in my case the legacy of chronic inflammation that has never been recognized.
Attitudes to Pain
Paul Brand points out the three attitudes to pain that he has observed over his life
- The buoyant acceptance of pain of those that suffer gladly for a cause – like Jesus who “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross”
- The bearing of pain with dignity and calm acceptance as he saw in the lepers he treated.
- The avoidance of pain at all costs – as he saw when he came to practice in the U.S. where the slogan “I haven’t got time for pain” has led to the proliferation of an industry that in 2011 cost us between $560 billion and $635 billion a year, as well as countless lives lost to opioid addiction.
Ironically when we ignore the pain signals our body gives us, eventually we pay the price. We all know the sports professionals who have ended up with joint, and spinal surgeries because they ignored their pain but they are not alone. I wonder how many joint and back surgeries would not be necessary if we didn’t reach quite so quickly for the ibuprofen bottle.
Now I am not suggesting that we grit our teeth and ignore our pain or that pain doesn’t exist. I have certainly sort relief from mine many times over the years. The crack in one of my teeth that was responsible never showed up on X-rays but I persevered because I knew this pain kept telling me “something is wrong”. Dr Brand gives us good advice when he suggests that our attitude towards pain before it starts determines how suffering will impact us when it does strike.
Preparing for Pain
Dr Brand gives some wonderful advice in the face of pain that I think all of us need to take note of:
- Take out pain insurance – our bodies speak to us in the language of pain and force us to take precautions. When we take pain killers we destroy or at least mute that language. So the next time aches and pains make you want to reach for the ibuprofen or Tylenol or panadol ask yourself – what is this pain telling me about my body? What signals am I ignoring that could be important and suggest I should seek professional help?
- Cultivate gratitude and appreciation of pain’s benefits – blisters, calluses, fevers, sneezes, coughs and yes the pain in my face are all emblems of the body’s self protection. Being grateful calms and relaxes us and sometimes the pain goes away. What do I have to be grateful for? I close my eyes and think of my body – of the breath that refreshes me hundreds of times a day, of my heart propelling the O2 from that breath throughout my body thousands of times a day, of my jaw – so beautifully created with strong bones and teeth and muscles and the fine tendrils of nerves – extraordinary cells these neurons that give me the ability to feel pain are. A single cell can be several feet long. If God crafted them in unique ad awe inspiring way, surely it is for a purpose. What else am I grateful for? I am grateful for the pain which over the years has told me “something is wrong” even though we could not find what it was. So much to be grateful for. I am indeed fearfully and wonderfully made, my pain tells me so.
- Take responsibility for my health and for the signals my body sends me. Last week I had a “woe is me day” a little bit of a pity party that could easily have become a way of life. The more I concentrate on the good things in my life and take time to savour its joys and wonderment, the more pain I can cope with. More than that I need to listen to my pain. Is there a pattern to it? How do relationships, meals, sleeping, drinking effect it? Maybe this pain can tell me other things that need to be repaired or focused on.
- Activity matters. All our joints need to move both regularly and completely. In Western society hip replacements are common but not in Indian society partly because we sit in chairs and cross-legged on the ground.
- Spiritual disciplines benefit. Contemplative practices help us relax and teach us self mastery replacing tense muscles and emotions with peace and calm. Many deeply contemplative people – Buddhist, Hindi and Christian experience little if any pain when contemplating.
- Surround yourself with a loving community. When we have family and friends to depend on for support and comfort even when we suffer our reduction in fear and loneliness has a huge impact on our pain perception.
Managing Our Pain
Sooner or later all of us suffer from pain and probably the greatest dread all of us have is that we will end our days in the chronic pain of cancer alone and uncared for. Fortunately hospice care has alleviated much of that concern but there are other ways we can prepare.
Our attitudes and responses in the past will determine how well we cope now and in the future.
- Distract don’t deaden. It is amazing how much higher our pain threshold becomes when we are doing something we enjoy. When I don’t sleep at night I can toss and turn, take a pain pill or get up and do something productive. Reading helps me relax and often means I am then able to sleep without painkillers.
- Don’t be afraid to tell people you hurt. For a long time no one knew I was in pain. I just put up with it. After the initial investigations showed nothing I tended to feel ashamed of my pain. I expected that people would tell me just to take painkillers. Now (as this post shows) I am not afraid to admit to my pain. Now I know I am not alone. People take me and my pain seriously. That in itself helps me relax, let go my fears and develop a sensible approach to my problem.
- Prepare yourself for a worst case scenario. My neighbour recently confided that the hardest thing about her husband’s death was that they never discussed it. What kind of painkillers would he take? What if he didn’t remain lucid until the end? Who did he want present when he faced death and was in pain? Many of us suffer from these feelings not just with facing death but with any severe pain. “Will I still control my life?” is the often unspoken fear behind our treatment of pain.
- Managing pain is more than painkillers. I love that we now often talk about pain management rather than pain relief. It has a healthier and more holistic view that implies we are part of a team dealing with our pain problem. If you suffer from chronic pain or have a friend in pain who is part of your pain management team? How do you relate to them? How can you help your fried manage their pain?
What is Your Response?
You may not be in pain at the moment but all of us have the opportunity to rethink the way we view pain and the impact it could have on our bodies in the future.
What is your current attitude towards pain? How does that impact your treatment of your own pain and your response to the pain of friends?
What could you do to enhance your sense of awe at the ways that God has crafted your body and its response to pain?
What changes could you make to your treatment of pain in the future?
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Have you had your daily dose of awe and wonder this week – maybe gone on an awe and wonder walk or drive or wandered your neighborhood taking notice of the people. Here are a few things I have been made aware of this week:
From Su Bowman:
Dew held in a maidenhair leaf, ready for a thirsty creature
Dew held in a maidenhair leaf, ready for a thirsty creature – Sue Bowman
From Lilly Lewin – watch for beauty
Tulips Skagit valley – photo by Lilly Lewin
She also contributed this awe and wonder moment for me – awed by friends who leave special memories behind and by the joy that bubbles up within me as I think about them.
Collage by Lilly Lewin
Finally I continue to be awed by the flowers bursting into bloom in both my garden and inside the house.
What gives you a sense of awe today?
Orchid cactus
By Lilly Lewin
This week the gospel reading in the lectionary is John 21, The Breakfast at the Beach.
I’ve heard it said that it takes three years to be present in a place and make good friends. It may take even longer now that people don’t go to traditional jobs everyday, but work in coffee shops and virtually. Three years. Jesus’s ministry with his disciples was that long or a bit longer. Jesus changed the lives of the disciples, their whole worlds. Jesus rocked their point of view and changed their perspectives on everything. No wonder they were confused when he died, afraid when he reappeared ALIVE, and still questioning what they were to do next even after the Resurrection.
It gives me comfort that Peter takes some of the gang fishing. Peter goes back to what is familiar and what he knows how to do. Something that makes sense to him. Yet, they don’t catch any fish. They fish all night and catch nothing. Then the Stranger (who turns out to be Jesus) shows up on the beach and invites them to fish on the other side of the boat.
Am I willing to fish again where Jesus tells me to fish?
Even when i have fished all night?
Am I willing to LISTEN to Jesus?
Am I willing to jump out of the boat to swim towards Him? Even if it means leaving my friends in the boat?
My favorite part of the John 21 story is that Jesus already had fish cooking on the grill. He really didn’t need their fish because Jesus already had breakfast ready for Peter and the other guys.
Jesus knew they’d be hungry.
Jesus provided what they needed physically and then Jesus provided what Peter needed emotionally too.
Do I believe? Can I believe that Jesus knows my needs?
Can I believe, am I willing to trust, that Jesus has breakfast already cooked and ready for me in my life?
Am I willing to TRUST that the RESURRECTION is for me too?
After the abundant catch, and the picnic breakfast, Jesus reminds Peter of his call. Jesus gives Peter the “what’s next” and let’s Peter know that his betrayal wasn’t the end of the story.
Jesus asks Peter if he love Him. And Pete says three times, you know that I love you Jesus.
Jesus knows that I love Him too. Jesus knows that I have doubts, fears, and big anxieties and He knows when I betray Him and Loves me anyway.
He hasn’t forgotten me.
Jesus hasn’t forgotten you either.
Jesus thankfully knows the WHAT’S NEXT for all of us!
Are we willing to be willing to wait on the what next with Jesus?
Read John 21 again. If there is a lake or some water near where you live, go sit beside the water and read the story out loud. Imagine the scene. Notice the sights and sounds around you, and think about the sights and sounds that surrounded the disciples that day at the beach. What do you notice? What were the conversations like?
Perhaps take a picnic with you to the water, or you could have fish tacos or even fish sticks for dinner and discuss John 21 with your friends, family or roommates. You can also use goldfish crackers a symbol of your willingness to fish again and trust in Jesus to show you what is next!
Here are some questions from the Prayer Station for John 21 found in the Sacred Space Prayer Experience called “At the Table with Jesus”
The Picnic Table Breakfast at the Beach
Jesus cooks breakfast for you…He knows what you need and He provides a picnic for you!
Consider the conversation before they went fishing. Peter and the guys had experienced extreme loss and now extreme joy …knowing their savior was alive.
Yet their lives were uncertain, their futures unclear. What were they supposed to do now?
What did Jesus being alive really mean? Are we dreaming?
Imagine the conversations in the boat. What questions did they have?
What are your questions for Jesus?
Tell him. Talk to him.
Do you need Jesus to give you directions for your future?
Do you need to know what’s next?
The beauty is that Jesus knows his disciples and he provided for them. He didn’t really need their fish.
He’d already provided a table for them…a PICNIC table!
How has Jesus already provided for you? Write this down on a paper plate!
Think about this. Talk to Jesus about this. Thank Jesus for how he’s provided for you!
Eat some fish (gold fish if you are doing this as a prayer station) as a reminder that he holds the future and that he is providing for you.
He is already cooking breakfast for your tomorrow! ©lillylewin ©freerangeworship
www.JohnAugustSwanson.com – copyright 1993 by John August Swanson
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