Monday, May 7, 2012

A Mother's Reflection on the Final Judgement


(In honor of Mother's Day next Sunday, I'm reprinting this. A stage of motherhood is coming to an end, for me, as our daughter graduates from high school next week and will be going to college in the fall. I'll post more reflections on motherhood at a later date. This week will be spent making mints (I borrowed a cow mint from a friend!), finding pictures, writing thank-you notes to the administration and teachers at Lakeview high school and doing a long list of related graduation and graduation party errands. It will be a wonderful week, especially seeing my parents and one of my sisters and her family! (See www.nebraskafamilytimes.blogspot.com for the "controversy" regarding the prayer at graduation at Lakeview.) May God bless all mothers!) 

A Mother’s Reflection on the Final Judgment
(received via internet)


For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat;
I was thirsty and you gave Me a drink;
I was a stranger and you let Me in;
I needed clothes and you clothed Me;
I was sick and you looked after Me;
I was in prison and you came to visit Me.
            Matthew 25:35-26

“When Lord? When were You hungry and I fed You?”
            “How could you ask that, you of the 3 million peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, the 100 ways to fix hamburger—which could have been steak if you hadn’t been feeding Me?”

“But thirsty, Lord?”
            “I was in the lemonade line that came in with the summer heat and flies, and left mud on your floors and fingerprints on your walls, and you gave Me a drink.”

“But naked Lord? And homeless?”
            I was born naked and homeless. You sheltered Me, first in your womb, and then in your arms, and clothed Me with your love (and spent the next 20 years struggling to pay the mortgage, the fuel bills, and keep Me in jeans).”

“Oh, Lord, but I never knew I visited You in prison. I’ve never been in a prison.”
            “Oh, yes, you were. For I was imprisoned in my littleness, behind the bars of my crib, and I cried in the night and you came. I was imprisoned inside a 12-year old body that was exploding with so many emotions I no longer knew who I was, and you loved Me into being Myself. I was imprisoned behind my teenage rebellion, my anger, my stereo set, and you came and sat by the wall of My hostility, took the abuse I heaped upon you, and waited in love for Me to open the door.”

“Now, enter into the kingdom of My Father, prepared for you since the foundation of the world.” 

2 comments:

  1. I've never looked at that passage in terms of my own children, but it seems very applicable. I've always considered it in terms of helping those in my community or around the world who are needy.
    Thanks for sharing!

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  2. I'd never thought of it in that way until I read this. I think it's a neat reminder of what we do for our kids (which often seems insignificant) we are also doing for our Lord.

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