Mother's Day--Its Joys and Challenges on the Rez

 This was our daughter Rose's first Mother's Day to be a mother back in  Colorado. 

I just love this picture of her and baby at her mother-in-law's place. My heart was a bit all over the place this Mother's Day.

Meanwhile, my own mother was surrounded by two sons and a daughter and families in Missouri, (photo above) while our own family was super busy preparing a Mother's Day service with plates of goodies for moms besides the usual food for Sunday dinner. 

Accidentally, most of us color coordinated--sort of! 

Jonathan led the service and all of us shared poems or readings from a book my mom gave me long ago called A Mother's Sourcebook of Inspiration.

There are many gems in that book. Here is one.

Grandma

My grandma likes to play with God,
They have a kind of game.
She plants the garden full of seeds,
He sends the sun and rain.

She likes to sit and talk with God
And knows He is right there.
She prays about the whole wide world,
Then leaves us in His care. 

Crystal and Hannah played a piano duet that is one of my favorite hymns, "Children of the Heavenly Father."

Jonathan asked each mother to choose a favorite hymn, ending up with  "There's a Wideness in God's Mercy," "My Faith Has Found a Resting Place," "The Unclouded Day," (requested by Pastor's wife who said her grandma used to sing this in her squeaky voice while shelling butter beans and blackeyed peas in Mississippi), "Amazing Grace" and "Trust and Obey." 

The Beckers visited our church this morning. There's a possibility the church will be coming under SIM in the future, so it was great for the Beckers to experience the place and the people. 

After the meal and moms getting their Mother's Day plates and some photos, Jonathan, Crystal and I took a few plates to White River Care Center down the street. We visited my friend there a bit, a mom whose daughters all live in Sioux Falls. When I asked when was the last time they had come to visit her, she said, "They don't. They're too busy."

Rather than focus on that bitter disappointment on Mother's Day, I simply put my arm around her and said, "Then I'll be your daughter today." 

I told her that I myself am far away from my own mom, so I go visit other moms like her.

 I told her what Jonathan shared in church that morning, that when our father or mother forsake us, (or in her case, as an older mom, when her daughters forsake her) the Lord will take care of us. 

I talked to her about God's love and care, got to pray with her, and enjoyed watching sparrows landing on the bird house just outside her window. I told her about the song, "His Eye is on the Sparrow." It was a lovely visit. 

We also got to see two other residents, including a man that Keith Lavery asked us to stop and see, so Jonathan checked into his room and gave him one of our extra plates of goodies. 

One of the things we face here on the reservations is the fact that Mother's Day is not a happy day for many people. Some don't like to attend church on Mother's Day because they had a bad mother or never had the privilege of being a mom themselves. With those thoughts in mind, I wrote a poem that Jonathan shared Sunday.

"I will comfort you as a mother comforts her child. You will be comforted in Jerusalem.”

Isa. 66:13

When God Becomes Our Mother

Many are the poems that have been written through the years'

About the well loved mothers who have been kind and dear.

But many are the children who missed that mother love.

Their mom was not there for them, or gone to heaven above.

Or maybe she was drinking and out with men and sin,

And never did her children know where she had been.

Some sluffed off their duties and let the children grow

While seldom ever providing the things they needed so--

Like love, attention, patience and smiles to the child 

Instead of negligence that sat and let him just run wild.

Grandma had to take him in, or the foster system cold,

And memories were rough and dim as such a mom grew old. 

Some people do not know a gentle mother's face

And they have few memories to fill that happy place. 

They envy those who get to have a happy family

While they sit quietly alone with tears that no one sees.

It's then that God stoops low, and whispers in their ear,

"I'll take the place of mother, for you are very dear.

When children have no good mother, God cares about the lack,

And when that child turns to Him, God will have his back. 

God will be the Father, the Mother, and the Friend,

He will be just all we need, until the very end.

So whether you're remembering a good mom or a bad,

God's arms are here to wrap you, and make you loved and glad!

--Anna Lucas