Mother’s Day 2020. The sweet. I am so grateful for my children. They are an eternal blessing. Just last evening my 14-year old daughter Koah, was doing a school assignment. She had to recreate a famous masterpiece for art class. She chose to emulate the “Last Supper” so she and her brother Kyler started taking photo after photo with costumes and props.

Later in the evening Koah showed me the finished art and I start laughing so hard I began to cry.  See it for yourself below.

The “Last Supper” recreated by Koah Wilson for 8th Art CHCA
Special thank you to model, Kyler Wilson

At some point in the photo shoot, my older son, KJ came into the room and asked if he could have a piece of the pound cake I made from scratch on Friday. I said, “Shouldn’t there be some sort of Mother’s Day song before we cut it?” I thought he was going to turn the melody of “Happy Birthday to you” into “Happy Mother’s Day to you.” Instead he grabbed his phone and started to sing a song called “I love my mom” by Blake Rules.

The above is a snapshot of my life with my children; they are creative, smart, kind, funny, love me and their dad and most importantly, God.

I am so grateful to have the privilege to be their mom.

The Bitter. For many woman, Mother’s Day is especially hard. They long for children and don’t have them. The hurt from difficult memories with a mother who was not able to mother well or at all. And there are mothers whose child has preceded her in death. This is sadly my reality too.

Our daughter, Kennedy Anne Wilson, died after 25 days of life on September 29, 2003. She had such a short time of earth, but she changed my life forever. The days following her passing were so hard and bitter.

Losing her placed me in a sisterhood of women that may be mourning as others are celebrating and I just want to acknowledge you and pray. Father please give beauty for ashes. In Jesus’ name.

The Bittersweet. So much of life is actually a mixture of these tastes and emotions. As my husband and I remember our moms, who are both with the Lord. We laugh above the funny things they did. How kind their affection was to each of us. How both moms stabilized us with their love. And we wish they were alive to see the antics of their grandchildren…and children. (As we miss our moms we acknowledge our “bonus” mom, Wanda Wilson. Happy Mother’s Day!)

Our moms and us at our wedding reception February 1990

Ironically I was reading my Bible yesterday and the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 was covered. I believe there is a special mom hidden in the passage.

John chapter 6, verses 3-9 say “Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.

Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”

Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up.

“There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” (NLT)

I often smile as I read this passage and think about a godly mom who says, Matthew, don’t forget to take your with you. I packed five loaves and two fish. Maybe the boy smiled as he ran out of the house. Or maybe he rolled his eyes, like five and loaves again. Maybe that was a very generous helping that could be shared. Or maybe is was barely enough to push away hunger pains until dinner.

But the account shows that this mom was raising a child who cared about the things of God, why else would he be listening to Jesus. We know he had some level of boldness as he spoke up and told Andrew about the specifics of his lunch.  And he was kind and did not keep it for himself, but had faith to give it as an offering to the Messiah.

After Jesus uses the lunch to feed the crowd of 5000 men, and the women and children that were also there.  Jesus has leftovers. I would bet that He made sure that at least one of the twelve baskets of leftovers was sent home with the young boy. And whether she was there on the hillside or at home, I bet he ran straight to his mom…