A Mother’s Love, God’s Love

I was listening to Jars of Clay the other day, and the song “Boys (Lesson One)” came on. It is such a beautiful song, and always makes me cry. The chorus and my favorite verse are:

You’ll weather love and
Lose your innocence

There will be liars
And thieves who take from you
Not to undermine the consequence
But you are not what you do
And when you need it most
I have a hundred reasons why I love you

The reason it makes me cry is because the thought that some day there will be liars and thieves who will take from my son breaks my heart. He will weather love and lose his innocence, I know that. My motherly instincts make me want to protect him from all the trials of life, but I know I can’t.

I do know, however, that God will always be with him. His faith will see him through the good times and the bad. The most important thing I can do as a mother is remind my son that I love him, and teach him that God loves him more than I ever could. I think sometimes it is hard for a mother to admit there is someone who could possibly love her son more than she does, but it’s true. God is love and His divine love is greater even than a mother’s love.

As I was listening to this song the other day, I thought of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The pain in my heart when I ponder the trouble my son will experience in this life is nothing compared to what she must have felt knowing her son was the Son of God. She didn’t just believe Jesus was God’s one and only Son, she knew with all her heart, mind, and soul exactly who He was. She heard the message of Gabriel and knew that his explanation of how she, a virgin, would be with child was truth. Nothing could ever take that away from her. Luke records that after Jesus’ birth, “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Luke 2:19 (NIV).

I wonder what she thought when she heard Him, time and time again, predict that He would be betrayed and killed? How much did her heart break when liars and thieves took His very life? How did she feel watching Him carry His cross through the streets of Jerusalem towards Golgotha? What went through her mind as Jesus, hanging on the cross, told John to care for her as his own mother? Did she know that as much as she loved Jesus, His Father loved Him more? And that He loved us even more?