Living the life God intended

Mother’s Day was recently celebrated in Australia. This year I was overseas for the day but I loved receiving the messages of love from my sons. It is a special day to honour our mums and thank them for being there for us through everything.

While playing Mary the mother of Jesus in our Easter production, I was overcome when I realised that Jesus honoured His mother in the first miracle and then honoured her when He was on the cross. Jesus valued and honoured His mother – not because she was greater than He was but because of the role that she played in His earthly life. Mary gave her life to Jesus through being saved, just like we did.

Let’s look at the two stories of Jesus honouring Mary in the Bible. The first one is at the wedding feast , in John 2, when Jesus turned the water into wine. At this time, Jesus had not performed any miracles at all. He had been water baptised by John and had endured the 40 day temptation in the wilderness. He had also picked His disciples but this was the first miracle. A Jewish wedding went for a while and it was an absolute dishonour if the groom’s father ran out of wine for the guests. But that is what happened at this wedding.

Mary found out about it and instructed Jesus to do something about it. Jesus remarked that it wasn’t yet His time – His father hadn’t instructed Him to do it. Remember that Jesus only did what His Father told Him to do and said what His Father told Him to say. However, Jesus complied with His mother’s wishes out of honour and water was turned into wine. This is the first miracle that Jesus did.

The second story is when Jesus was hanging on the cross. The last supper was over, his disciples had betrayed Him, denied Him and ran and the trials were finished – Jesus was declared guilty. Jesus had been through so much by the time they nailed Him to the cross but there was still more to come. But in the midst of His pain and suffering, both emotional and physical, there was one more thing left to do. Jesus’s father Joseph must have already died because there is no mention of him in the Bible in Jesus’s adult life. Therefore, as the oldest son, it was His responsibility to take care of His mother. On the cross, He took care of that responsibility. In John 19: 26 to 27, Jesus saw hIs mother standing there. He said to John that she was now his responsibility and the disciple then took her into his home and looked after her. Jesus’ work as a son was now completed. He had honoured His mum right up to the end.

God created mums and knows just how special they are. I hope that in Mother’s Day you honoured your mum. If not, do it today or as soon as you can. You will make her happy and be obedient to God all at the same time. Have a good day and keep living the life God intended.