by Sandy Kirby Quandt

I’d like to tell you a Mother’s Day story of what happens when love wins out.

Once upon a time, long ago, in a land far away, an innocent man was betrayed by a friend. He was wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit during an illegal trial and sentenced to die. Although heartbroken, the man’s widowed mother attended her son’s execution.

During the condemned man’s final moments, he looked at his mother. Understanding the gravity of his death upon the woman, the man spoke to a cousin standing beside his mother and asked him to take care of her. The cousin willingly agreed to take the condemned man’s mother into his home and treat her as he would his own mother.

Despite the excruciating torture Jesus endured during his crucifixion, he was concerned for his widowed mother, Mary. In his final moments, Jesus made preparation for Mary’s care. He entrusted her to John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, the son of Mary’s sister, Salome.

Before Jesus’ death, I believe many thoughts flooded Mary’s mind.

Perhaps she began to understand the prophesies spoken about her son more clearly.

Perhaps Mary understood the words spoken of her eight-day-old baby boy in the temple thirty-three years earlier when Simeon said, “I have seen God’s salvation, which God prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of God’s people Israel! This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul, Mary.”

Mary didn’t always understand the reasons Jesus did what he did. Sometimes she disagreed with her son, and was embarrassed by the way he went about his ministry. Those disagreements and misunderstandings could have escalated and separated the two, but they didn’t. Mary stood at the foot of the cross when Christ died. In his final moments Jesus made provision for her care.

That’s what happens when love wins out.

Many times our children don’t understand the reasons we do what we do, and often we don’t understand the reasons for what they do.

This lack of understanding can result in frustration and embarrassment. Fertile ground for misunderstandings and estrangement to grow and flourish, and for love to diminish.

This Mother’s Day instead of letting our differences separate and divide us, how about we consider Jesus and Mary’s example of love and devotion, and make sure in our lives, just as in theirs, love wins out.

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Standing near his cross were Jesus’ mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the follower he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the follower, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, the follower took her to live in his home. John 19:25-27 (NCV)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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