Feeling loved – on Mother's Day and all year round
A Christian Science perspective: Love can be felt regardless of how close we are to our loved ones.
It was Mother’s Day, but I knew there would be no celebration for me. I was a mother of a very active two year old and my husband was deployed as Captain of a Navy ship.
That morning I had been up early and had already taken several phone calls from both Navy wives and other people needing to be comforted.
After one phone call I leaned back in my chair, and said, “Dear God, I am striving diligently to be a blessing to others, but what about me? Is there anything for me today?”
At that very moment the telephone rang. It was the voice of a little girl who said, “Miss Stephanie I’ve been thinking of you!”
It took my breath away! I had known this girl from another city, but at that moment it was to me the voice of God: “Miss Stephanie I’ve been thinking of you!”
I greatly valued the thoughtfulness of the little one and her family who knew my husband was deployed. But even greater than their kindness, I felt deeply touched by the timing of the call and felt that precious voice spoke to me of God’s great love for me.
Throughout my life, I have found that God reaches through to us in ways that we can accept and understand. There have been many Mother’s Days since that one, but none so special, so deeply moving, so tenderly comforting. I will never forget the feel of knowing how loved I was, and that I would never be forgotten.
In the United States and elsewhere, Mother’s Day has become synonymous with lots of human expectations. If we’re not careful, the fulfillment of these clichés can become a false standard for feeling loved, and a heavy burden on our family. For many, as in my case, there is no one there to provide these expressions of love. But my experience tells me that there is an infinite Love, always present, always conscious of us, and always celebrating us. This is the true blessing of the day, and every day.
Eons ago someone must have felt this tender embrace as profoundly as I did – enough to share this: “The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3).
The discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, echoes this assurance when she writes of God “... holding man forever in the rhythmic round of unfolding bliss, as a living witness to and perpetual idea of inexhaustible good” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, pp. 82, 83).
What wonderful news it is to know that we each dwell in that “rhythmic round of unfolding bliss!” We are both a witness to it and the continual evidence of this good!
When I think of that Mother’s Day long ago tears come to my eyes, but not out of sadness. I rejoice in the profound love and caring I felt and still feel to this day. This experience helps me see that divine Love embraces everyone, and that makes my heart sing for us all!