(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
