Mother's Day, 2011

I do not have very specific memories from the past 6 years of this day, save for the first one which was one week to the day before Mads was born. As I sat with our church family on Sunday with Taryn in my lap, the time came to take communion. Having already blessed me with sleeping sweetly in my arms through a good portion of the morning, Taryn became very excited and interested when the bread passed towards us. As I took a piece of bread, she took one as well.  Needless to say, PJ and I were thankful to avert disaster as her flailing hand grabbed for more.  While sitting and waiting for the rest of our brothers and sisters to receive their bread, I began to feed Taryn microscopic bits of ‘her’ piece. It was the first time she ate something solid other than Cheerios, and she responded very enthusiastically, hardly content with working each little bit around in her mouth while anxiously looking ahead for the next piece. The thought suddenly struck me that this was a picture of my greatest task, or calling, as a mother. When I take communion as a follower of Christ, the bread functions as a reminder of Christ’s sacrifice-his body broken for me. On Sunday I sat and fed my daughter; something that she physically needs in order to survive. The bread she ate, while meeting her physical need for the moment, was actually representative of my Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can meet her greatest and deepest need forever. Every day, every moment, I am to ‘feed’ my children Christ. I am to nourish their souls through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in me. This is my blessed vocation and my great passion. The loudest and most fervent cry of my heart is that my children will be satisfied by the eternal bread of Christ.