Mother's Day reflections

Abraham has been sick this weekend, so that has meant that our plans for Abraham's birthday, Mother's Day, and our seventh anniversary were pretty much diminished and/or eliminated. I'm disappointed, but as I was holding my feverish little son this morning, I kept thinking about how being able to comfort him and be all that he wants and needs is tremendously more satisfying than, say, that Mother's Day brunch at a fancy restaurant for which I was hoping.

I was comforting him last night when this little rhyme popped into my mind, something that I've had jotted in the back of my Bible for years but which I don't think I fully understood before:

"God speaks Himself to us, as mothers speak

To their own babes, upon the tender flesh

With fond familiar touches close and dear;

Because He cannot choose a softer way

To make us feel that He himself is near,

And each apart His own beloved and known."

                                                                                                -- Ugo Bassi

The truth of that just kind of washed over me as I held my son and returned to him each time he needed me last night. It is amazing to be the source of his comfort, and to wipe away his anxiety with a touch of my hand, even as the fever remains. How could I ever hope to attain a greater Mother's Day than the satisfaction of being his mommy?

And yet I seem to hear this refrain this evening, as I sigh a little bit about the third anniversary in a row that was dominated by children and devoid of a romantic getaway:

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42)

Doesn't it seem ironic that on Mother's Day, of all days, I would kind of be longing for a break? But the life and commitment we have chosen is worthwhile, and staying home with our sick babies is worthwhile, and even though I wonder why it keeps happening this way, I know that we are glad that we are choosing to put our own plans and goals on hold... even in good things like a much-needed day away together... and I know that the Lord is gently giving me more and more ways to learn the words of James 1:4 that I have propped on the kitchen windowsill:

"Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Okay, Lord. Help me get there!