Mothering Sunday
Show model of a house. What is difference between a house and a home? House is the building – might be big or small – set in Howth or Darndale. Home is about not just the building but the people who live there. One of the insights of the writer of Genesis is when he writes of God, having brought into being all the wonders of creation, saying ‘It is not good for man to be alone’. God has made us to live together – home is where we learn the complicated business of living with others: the simple things, sharing meals, sharing tasks, relaxing together, playing together – the importance of understanding, of consideration.
It goes further than that. We read in the Bible that God is love and we also read that we are made in the image of God – so love and the capacity to love is an important part of our makeup. So God has made us to love together – home is where we first experience love. As children we know what it is to be loved by our parents – we learn what it is to be valued, to be special. As parents it is probably the most valuable gift we can give to our children, to one another.
Living together, loving together, home is where we learn together. When I was in Birmingham a few weeks back I took my two sons to see the house I had grown up in – the house that had been my home. Saw the window of the front room, where we had sat down together for Sunday meals, looked around the back, saw the window of what had been my bedroom, the back garden where we had played together and thought of what I had learned in that house that at one stage was my home. The importance of being loved, of caring for one another, of integrity, of loyalty, of work.
So the home is where we experience what it is to live together, to love together, a place where we learn some of the most important lessons of life. At the heart of that is the mother. The one who brought us to birth, the one who cares for our needs, who listens to our joys, our problems, our disappointments, one who understands – the one who is often forgotten, taken for granted.
So today, Mothering Sunday is a day to thank God for mothers, for wives, and to show in some small way that we do care, we are thankful.