Big Mamma!

A recent trip to Kennedy's farm in Co. Kerry proved to be a wonderful day out, (once we had come to terms with the entrance fee).

The pigs were amongst my favourite animals there; there were half a dozen or more piglets running around and then there was the mother pig, who was rather grumpy - I can understand why they are called Sows!  Though grumpy, she mattered an awful lot to the little piglet shown in the picture above, he followed her around, when she lay down, so did he, when she got up to rummage for more food, he did the same.  Sometimes though he got too close and was then chased to the other side of the sty.  Perhaps not the most doting mother, but to this piglet she was his world.

Of course this got me thinking about motherhood.  Not that as a man, a son and a father myself I would have the slightest clue, but not having a clue about something has never stopped me writing about it before!  I look at our own children and see, that for them, mummy is their world.  Whenever they need something, whether it be food, drink, a plaster or comforting, daddy will do, but really mummy is the number one choice.  Why?  Because she is mummy and because she has all the God-given qualities necessary for this important role.  There is a very special bond between mother and child that, even as the years go by and mothers become grandmothers never goes away.  I still have a close bond with my mother, even though we do not get to see each other (other than on Skype) very often.  There is something very special (and of God) in all of this, a bond that transcends time and distance.

I can't help but think of Mary's relationship with the Lord Jesus, but I simply am not able to fathom how despairingly, darkly, impossibly difficult it must have been for her to see her son being crucified.  I think of Jesus' words to her, recorded in John 19:

When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

In a significant sense, Mary was no longer Jesus' mother, but in a way beyond our understanding they would be together in eternity (along with all believers).  In the meantime, Jesus gave her another son, the apostle John, in order that they might look after each other.  How amazing it is that the Lord was able to think of his mother in this way even whilst he was suffering the way he was.  She must have been quite a mother and he quite a son.