Sounds like a Mothers Day post, doesn’t it?  But Mothers day is a long way from now, and it’s on my mind.

I suppose there could be many reasons why Moms can be great Christians. But at the moment I’ve got two brief thoughts for your consideration.

Here’s reason number one.

Any mom knows how utterly stupid it would sound for one of her children to say, “Mom, I was just thinking about the day I chose you to be my mom!” or “Mom, I can remember how hard I had to work in order to get to be your child!”

Mom knows that the kid didn’t choose to be born! The kid didn’t choose to have her for a mom! She chose to give birth to her child. She chose to be her child’s mom.

You say, “But wait! I chose God didn’t I?”

Not really. If you are a Christian, God chose you, and by His grace you responded to Him in repentance and faith… which are gifts from Him.

And, of course,  any mom certainly knows that the child is not the one who did the work in order to be born into the world! Mom did all the work. She labored. She gave birth. The baby doesn’t initiate. The baby responds.

Reason number two is related to reason number one.

Moms, of all people, understand that the willingness to endure severe contractions and totally exhausting labor can lead to a beautiful and worthwhile outcome!

It is difficult for us men to really appreciate this process. We can marvel at it. We may admire our wives and love them for it. But we can’t really identify. (And when we watch our wives laboring to give birth to a child, we may be glad we are male. Someone has said that if men had to give birth, the population rate would quickly plummet to zero.)

But she understands it in her deepest being. She has been there. She fully understands that there is indeed a high cost to giving birth to a child, but she doesn’t dwell on the cost. She is too overcome with joy for the child in her arms for that.

There is profound spiritual application here.

We are spiritually born by the grace, and through the intense labor, of our Lord Jesus Christ. He chose to give us birth. And He is filled with joy at the birth of His children. But we do well to ponder what it cost Him. Moms probably do a better job of that than dads. But all of us who are believers can learn the application, whether we are moms or not.

On another level, moms can also appreciate that there are times in this life when we ourselves must endure some “travail” before the anticipated outcome.

For example, we posttribbers have sometimes been accused of anticipating tribulation instead of anticipating the return of Christ. While it may be true that believers will have to endure a time of tribulation before the coming of the Lord, to say that we are not looking for His coming would be like saying a mom is not looking forward to her baby because she knows she has to go through contractions and labor first! (Scroll down to the last section on “Is the Return of Christ Imminent?” for elaboration on this analogy.)

God chose us. We didn’t choose Him.

He did all the work. We didn’t.

Travail can lead to fabulous outcomes.

We all need to try to understand these things. Moms can help us do that.

Stay in the battle!

Steve Hall