missing mom

on this mother's day, i feel particularly sad about being away from my mom.  we don't necessarily spend each mother's day with her, but it is the comfort of proximity.  this year, we are so far away.  during church, geoff's dad, kevin, shared during communion about the motherly love of god.  he reminded us of the description of jesus as a hen that longs to gather in her chicks.  he shared a story of a canadian farmer - a fire burned rapidly across the plains and in the aftermath, in the ashes, he found a burnt fowl of some kind.  the farmer kicked the bird to see if it was truly dead and beneath it found her chicks alive.  i thought of all my mother's prayers, her sacrifices, her example as a servant and her love for us and how little i've actually appreciated her.

in the book "gilead" i read this passage and it moved me as i think my own brief experience of being the mother of isaac (almost four years now) -

"I'd never have believed I'd see a wife of mine doting on a child of mine.  It still amazes me every time I think of it.  I'm writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you've done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God's grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle."