Down the hall prints of a chubby-cheeked new baby appeared on Michaela’s closed door every week until the new mom returned to work. If the new baby laughs as much in life as her mom did in pregnancy, she will be a happy child. We witnessed her mom’s endless hungers. Her stresses rekindled the memories of pregnancy for others at lunch. We shared the joy when mom and dad packed her in the car seat with the stroller ready in the back and brought Imogene to show her off in person.
Pregnancy draws women into Earth’s work of giving life. For nine months a woman’s life is not her own. A mom can work like lightning designing publications on computer, but she can’t hurry the baby. The child unfolds on Earth’s program. The next 1,000 days of care make all the difference in the child’s development.
Mothering matters. Fathering matters. Human babies come into the world unable to care for themselves. Parents are on call to feed, change, and soothe the baby 24/7. Slowly a child begins to recognize this faithful caregiver, and in doing so, begins to trust the world and form a bond with someone in it.
Most of what mothers do goes without saying in the gospels. We know only that Mary wraps Jesus in swaddling clothes and lays him in a manger. But without the care parents give children through sleepless nights in the first year and harried efforts to stay a step ahead of them in the terrible twos, children would not grow up and flourish. We know Mary mothered Jesus because he grew in grace and wisdom.
- How has mothering mattered to you?