Friday, September 26, 2014

Beauty and Motherhood: every Christian woman can be a mother and motherhood is a beautiful thing!


 

















I read a really good book recently, called "Housewife Theologian" by Aimee Byrd (thanks Mel!), and I thought I would share one of my favourite parts, in the chapter on beauty. It really resonated with me, and I have found myself coming back to it again and again over the last few weeks. Aimee says:

"One of the most vivid descriptions of a beautiful woman that has stuck in my mind was penned by C.S. Lewis. He describes a sort of heavenly parade in honor of one woman who has finished her life on earth. The writer of this vision first thinks he recognizes this overwhelmingly beautiful woman as she is approaching. But it seems that what he recognizes is really a type of beauty that he has been longing for. His guide tells him that her name is Sarah Smith, from Golders Green. She sounds so ordinary, doesn't she? But it appears that she is a very significant woman in this place, as she is accompanied by flocks of people, showering her with flowers. When the writer asks the guide about both the men and women escorting her, the guide answers that they are her children. However, he explains further what he means by that.

'Every young man or boy that met her became her son – even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.'
'Isn't that a bit hard on their own parents?'
'No. There are those that steal other people's children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. Few men looked on her without becoming, in a certain fashion, her lovers. But it was the kind of love that made them not less true, but truer, to their own wives.'

Now this is the beauty I aspire to have!... It is a beauty that changes people, affects the universe... "

Me too, Aimee! This is the kind of beauty I aspire to have. Aimee goes on to talk about our culture's warped perceptions of beauty, and how our beauty as women isn't something we acquire over others, but rather something we share with others in an appropriate way:

"It is not the lack of beauty in someone else that makes me more beautiful. Quite the opposite, another person's beauty can enhance my own!... We need to recognize the lie that our culture is selling about beauty and turn our eyes to the Creator of all that is beautiful."

I loved too how Sarah Smith's beauty in C.S. Lewis' story is so closely linked to her motherhood. And by "motherhood", I mean something that goes beyond having biological children (although it can certainly include that for women who bear children), because you will notice that there is no husband mentioned in the story, and that the children who are showering her with flowers in heaven are clearly her spiritual children - sons and daughters born, "not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13). Motherhood is a beautiful thing! Yet, motherhood in the family of God is not reserved for only those who bear children in the natural sense; it is for all women - married, single, having biological children, infertile, or having adopted children. As Christian women, we don't have to wait until we are married and have natural children to embrace motherhood!

I have found that this reminder has been particularly encouraging to me now that Jon and I are back in the "waiting" stage of the adoption process, and will not be growing our nuclear family as soon as I had hoped. In the waiting, I am reminded of who Jesus said his family was: "those who hear the Word of God and do it" (Luke 8:21). I am reminded that He also said, "there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10:29). I am reminded that there is a bigger, eternal, forever family, to which all earthly families point - the household of God (Eph 2:19) - which we can be a part of NOW ... and it is REAL family! Let this be encouragement to those of us who are single and maybe longing to be married, or feeling alone in the world because our bio family isn't around, or maybe married and longing for children - there is an eternal family that we are all a part of if we are trusting in Jesus for salvation! In this family, we are united by a different kind of blood - the blood of our Saviour! And this is the Blood that matters most.

I think I'll end this post with a lengthy quotation from John Piper on this subject that really encouraged me this week. I hope it will be an encouragement to other ladies as well: 

Take heed lest you minimize what I am saying and do not hear how radical it really is... I am declaring the temporary and secondary nature of marriage and family over and against the eternal and primary nature of the church. Marriage and family are temporary for this age; the church is forever. I am declaring the radical biblical truth that being in a human family is no sign of eternal blessing, but being in God's family means being eternally blessed. Relationships based on family are temporary. Relationships based on union with Christ are eternal. Marriage is a temporary institution, but what it stands for lasts forever. "In the resurrection," Jesus said, "they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven" (Matt 22:30)

And when his own mother and brothers asked to see him, Jesus said, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "here are my mother and my brothers!" (Matt 12:48-49). Jesus is turning everything around. Yes, he loved his mother and his brothers. But those are all natural and temporary relationships. He did not come into the world to focus on that. He came into the world to call out a people for his name from all the families of the earth into a new family where single people in Christ are full-fledged family members on par with all others, bearing fruit for God and becoming mothers and fathers of the eternal kind.  

"Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" a woman cried out to Jesus. And he turned and said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" (Luke 11:27-28). The mother of God is the obedient Christian - married or single! Take a deep breath and reorder your world.  

"Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel," Jesus said, "who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life" (Mark 10:29-30). Single person, married person, do you want children, mothers, brothers, sisters, lands? Renounce the primacy of your natural relationships and follow Jesus into the fellowship of the people of God.


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