This Sunday is Mother’s Day, a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed all over the world in one form or another. In the United States, it was created by a woman named Anna Jarvis in 1908. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made it an official holiday.

I am fortunate, at the age of 60, to still have my mother with me. She’s been through it all, and survived to tell the tale. She’s taught me more than I sometimes realize and she is appreciated more than she probably knows. I’ve heard it said that we never really appreciate our mothers until we become a parent ourselves. Having raised and released three children, I can honestly say this is true. Motherhood was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but also the most amazing. I know that sounds like an old cliche, but there is something almost breathtaking about seeing your children as adults with children of their own. The peace of knowing that you did your best and the Lord did the rest.

Erma Bombeck is one of my favorites. Here is what she had to say about Mothers.

Happy Mother’s Day to all and enjoy!

“When God Created Mothers”

When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of “overtime” when the angel appeared and said, “You’re doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.”

And God said, “Have you read the specs on this order? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts…all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands.”

The angel shook her head slowly and said. “Six pairs of hands…. no way.”

“It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” God remarked, “it’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”

“That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel. God nodded.

“One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. ‘I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.”

“God,” said the angel touching his sleeve gently, “Get some rest tomorrow….”

“I can’t,” said God, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick…can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger…and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower.”

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed.

“But tough!” said God excitedly. “You can imagine what this mother can do or endure.”

“Can it think?”

“Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” said the Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.

“There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model.”

“It’s not a leak,” said the Lord, “It’s a tear.”

“What’s it for?”

“It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.”

“You are a genius, ” said the angel.

Somberly, God said, “I didn’t put it there.”
― Erma Bombeck, When God Created Mothers