It’s Mothers’ Day this Sunday. It’s really great than once a year we’re able to honour and celebrate the mums God has blessed us with.

But let’s not let Mothers’ Day, with all its flowers and chocolates and cards and fluffy slippers, make us insensitive to the realities of motherhood in a broken world. Because the truth is, when we’re celebrating Mothers’ Day, others might be sad, regretful, or even angry.

The Bible describes God as,

‘Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.’ (Psalms 68:5–6 ESV)

He is not just the God of model families with the cookie-cutter children  and a Pinterest-perfect mum. He is a God who cares for people without parents, for women on their own, for those without a home. He also cares for the woman with no kids (Psalm 113:9).

On this Mothers’ Day, as we celebrate mothers, let’s also be thoughtful and prayerful about mothers who are estranged from their children, and children who are estranged from their mothers. For women who never had the joy of children, and for those who struggle daily with the raising of their kids, especially those who do it alone. For those who have suffered the pain of losing children. For those who have suffered the pain of losing their mothers. For those mothers who have been betrayed or hurt by their children, or those children who have known the same from their mothers.

God cares about them too, and so should we.

Because the reality of the world we live in is that it’s broken by sin, and passing away. And while a good mother is a great blessing that we should be grateful to God for, our hope doesn’t lie in a good mother or in motherhood but in a great saviour – the Lord Jesus Christ – forever.

Live it: How could you encourage those who struggle on Mothers’ Day with the hope of the gospel?

– Clint Lombard