Mother's Day Poem

Today is Mother’s Day in the United States. (If you are interested in the history behind Mother's Day, this is an interesting article.)

Some of us have mothers with us still. I have a friend whose mom is over 100. Few of us have that gift. My own mother died 18 years ago. There are mothers who are absent, so that other women (or men) have stepped in to take their place in the lives of children. Our God is mostly called “Father”, but God is just as much a Mother caring for her children. The creation poem by James Weldon Johnson represents God as a ‘mammy bending over’ to breathe life into the newly created human mud baby.

….Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in is his own image;
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.

Excerpt from The Creation by James Weldon Johnson

Moms aren’t perfect, but moms offer the best of themselves to their children. Each of us, mother or not, bears some wounds from life. Yet it is despite those scars that mothers offer themselves to their children and families. This little poem is to all mothers, esp. to my own. 

Mother mine

I knew your love was always there
You protected me when life wasn’t fair.
Your discipline I didn’t like
When I was just a little tike.

When a mom myself, I soon learned
From your own wants you often turned.
Loving this child through all your days
Teaching me to walk only the best ways.

Imperfect though each mom may be
Love is what they give so freely.
Protection, nurture, hope and love
Blessing to all mothers from God above.

© Cynthia Davis 2015

Happy Mother’s Day!