What a Mother...

Some mother's are amazing! You know, you hear those stories of the mom who picks up her Buick with one arm, while pulling her child to safety with the other! Wow! I don't know if it's true...but I wish I had one of those kind of mom's! Now my mom is cool, and she's been a great mom...but I've never seen her pull off any super hero kind of stuff...has yours? As I reflected on mom's...cause it's Mother's Day... and well I guess you got to...or you are the scum of the earth... but you should...really you should! I began a process of thinking...and a friend spoke about Mother's Day...and we got around to how it was totally appropriate to appreciate mom's...even bad one's...even so-so ones...cause without a mom, where would be all be? After all without a mom...you don't exist! Ok, mom, I got to give you that one!!! But seriously, the impact of mom's is beyond that really...good and bad... I suppose. As we bounced things around in conversation, my friend spoke of King David...then I thought...so what's the deal with David's mom? I don't know much about her? She must have been something special...cause he was a dude who became "a man after God's own heart"! What could I glean from her? What could I appreciate in her? Well what I discovered was quite interesting. There isn't much about David's mom in the Bible...but she is mentioned in Jewish writings. She was married to Jesse, David's dad, as the bible tells us. And apparently Jesse was a big shot, a respected man. Yet, when David was born, this prominent family greeted his birth with utter derision and contempt...he was not well received, to say the least. As David describes quite literally in Psalm 69, "I was a stranger to my brothers, a foreigner to my mother's sons...they put gall in my meal and gave me vinegar to quench my thirst." He was such an outcast within his own family that David was not permitted to eat with the rest of his family, but was assigned to a separate table in the corner. Wow, that's harsh...permanent naughty chair...yet worse! Apparently he was given the task of shepherd because "they hoped that a wild beast would come and kill him while he was performing his duties" and for this reason was sent to pasture in dangerous areas full of lions and bears, as 1 Samuel chapter 17, verses 34 through 36 describe. Ok, now that's cutthroat! From your own family no less! Yet, only one individual throughout David's youth was pained by his unjustified plight and felt a deep, unconditional bond of love for the child whom she alone knew was undoubtedly pure. This was King David's mother, Nitzevet bat Adel, who felt the intensity of her youngest child's pain and rejection as her own. Torn and anguished by David's unwarranted degradation, yet powerless to stop it, Nitzevet stood by the sidelines, in solidarity with him, shunned herself, as she, too, cried rivers of tears, awaiting the time when justice would be served. It would take twenty-eight long years of assault and rejection, suffering and degradation until that justice would finally begin to materialize...and David would be crowned King! Wow, now that is a mother's heart! That is to be celebrated! In fact, that echoes God's heart really. Amazing! It's as if a God deposit was in that mother's heart. Isn't that awesome! Maybe that is the seed that was planted in David's heart that eventually grew into him becoming "a man after God's own heart". Maybe that is why David felt confident to constantly return to God in his failures, in his fears, and when facing the battles before him. Maybe that is why David loved God so much...because his mom loved him so much...first! I have a feeling God desires each of us to have someone like David's mom in our life story...because the impact can be so transforming...and eternal. At ECHO we hope that that is a reminder to each of us of the heart of God towards us...in solidarity with us...even weeping tears for us...in the midst of our pain, rejection and suffering! When it seems as if everyone is against you...maybe even your own family...know that God desires someone to journey with you through it...so that you may get a taste of His heart for you through them! May we appreciate those who journey with us...our mom's...our dad's...perhaps other near one's...for in that we often experience the love of God in ways that are amazing!

be God's!
Brian O
Lead Pastor dude, ECHO