Rev. Dr. Devin Strong

Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church

Growing up, my mom was not only my primary caregiver, she was also, she the one that cheered me on and taught me to be independent, particularly in terms of my physical disability. She taught me that the world would not necessarily accommodate to me so I needed to conquer obstacles in the world. She did her job well.

She did it so well that by the time I was a teenager, we fought like cats and dogs! My dad and my sister were both smart enough to stay out of the way and keep quiet. That was a lesson that took me a long time to learn. I was a bright and verbal kid but didn’t yet have the filters that have served me well as an adult. In other words, I shot my mouth off a lot and got myself in plenty of deserved trouble with my mother!

Being a self-centered youth, it never dawned on me how hard it was for her to raise a significantly disabled child.

Nor did I realize how difficult it was to be a young mom in the late 60s and early 70s. If my mom had been born 20 years later, she might well have been one of the first women ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but as it was, she served God as a volunteer-extraordinare. She was on the Church Council in our large congregation, she taught Sunday School and confirmation, and led in countless other ways.

Later in life, my mother became what was then-called an Associate In Ministry, a non-ordained professional leader in the Lutheran Church. Still later, she served as a hospital chaplain who stood beside a great many sick and dying people. She listened with love and was a conduit for God’s own grace.

These days, in my late middle age--at least that’s what I’m calling it!--my mother is still my number one cheerleader, but she is also a trusted confidant and on a short list of my best friends in the world.

As Mother’s Day approaches, we reflect on and celebrate all of those who have been mothering presences in our lives. These days when language and identity are much debated, people argue about masculine versus feminine images for God, but we need all the words that we can possibly think of to describe the Lord of Love because our best efforts give us only the smallest glimpse of the enormity that is the Divine. God inhabits the very best of so-called male and female attributes. Or better, you and I inherit the best of those attributes that we see in the Almighty.

I’m talking about gifts like nurturing, gentleness, compassion, tenderness, toughness, and tenacity. These are just some of the gifts that I learned from my mother.

Many of you are blessed to have similarly fantastic moms. Some of you are not.

Moms are not perfect. They are sinners just like the rest of us! But if we are very blessed, we have mothers who embody something of Jesus himself.

So buy your mom candy or flowers this weekend, and if you are fortunate enough to live nearby, take her to church and out to lunch. More than anything else, I hope that each of us can give thanks for all of the nurturing and tenacious people in our lives who have made us who we are today.