The Village Church
Woman Behold Your Son - Audio
OK. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day. If you are a mother here this morning, I want you to stand up. I see you, gentlemen, in the back. Very nice. You should have waited for the next one. If you are not a mother this morning, but you hope to one day be a mother, stand up. Future mothers stand up. No, no, no, keep those of you who are standing, keep standing. Everybody loves to stand. So I have mothers and future mothers, right? OK. Those of you who ever had a mother stand up. Now I'm looking for those who are still sitting down. Why are you still sitting down? If you ever had a mother stand up, there should be nobody sitting down right now. OK, everybody sit down. I want you to turn in your Bibles with me to John chapter 19. Mothers affect all of us. That's the point of that. And on a day like today, on Mother's Day, when we take time to honor our mothers, it's fitting to look the passage that we're about to look at. It's a familiar passage. But mothers have a special part in the heart of God. And not only mothers, women, as a whole, have a special part in his heart. They were the first to witness the resurrection. God chose a young adolescent to bear his son. And we could go on and on maybe another time about the special place that women have in the heart of God. But they also give us a quintessential glimpse into the character of God. And not only this, we need to remember it's just a picture. It's just a glimpse. It's an incomplete picture. If we want a complete picture, we have to look at Christ. Because as Colossians 1, 15 tells us, He is the exact image of the invisible God. Before we look at this text, just background, Jesus has been crucified. He is on the cross as we pick it up in John 19. We're going to be focusing on verses 25 through verses 27. But I want to start at verse 17 just so we have a context, so we kind of feel what's going on. And I'll start there. They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him and with Him two other men, one on either side and Jesus in between. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews." Therefore, many of the Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified and it was near the city. And it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, "Do not write the King of the Jews, but that He said, 'I am the King of the Jews.'" And Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." Then the soldiers, when they crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, apart for every soldier and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, "Let's not tear it. The cast lots for it. To decide whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture. They divided my outer garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots." And these next three verses are where we're going to camp out this morning. Therefore, the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopus and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved, standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son." Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother." From that hour, the disciple took her into his own household. Will you please pray with me? Heavenly Father, again we confess, your word is beautiful. And we invite your Holy Spirit to minister to our hearts. We want to absorb the truth that is here. And we need your help to do it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. When I was a child, about four or five years old, we lived in a house in the backyard of our house, backed up to a cow pasture. And it was fun because you could take the really long weeds that grew on the back fence and feed through the fence, the cows. One morning we woke up, my brother and I, and we went out to the cow pasture by the back fence. The cows gone, and in their place the whole field had been marked up by bulldozers. And there were big, great big mounds of dirt. So we ran in to ask Mom if we could play in the dirt. She kind of scouted out, made sure it was safe for us to go back there. And we're back there playing King of the Hill and whatever we invented. We're just really impressed. We've never seen hills 80 times the size of us. And we're in the heart of our fun. Another group of neighborhood kids comes around. There's five of them. They're big. And they're probably like seven. But they were huge to us. And they begin to taunt us and make fun of us. And they kick us out of our Mount Everest. And as we're going away, as we're retreating, I'm sure that the poo poo face and my dad can beat up your dad. And whatever else was being exchanged was being exchanged. And one of the kids took a dirt clot, and he threw it, and hit me square in the back, just the bud. And I remember thinking I was amazed that he could throw it that far, because they were way over there. But I immediately began to cry. We went home and told my mom about what had happened. And she was incensed, absolutely incensed. And she started storming towards the scene of the crime. And I'm thinking, I have no idea what's going to happen when she gets there. But you kind of walk in confidently behind, because you feel like you've got the police escort now. Things are going to happen. And she called them out. And they sheepishly offered defenses of, yeah, but this. And well, we just thought, and she silenced them. She laid into them. She said, if I have to come back out here, kind of like, this is just going to be between me and you, and you're not going to like it, she called them out. And I remember thinking, I was just in awe of her. On the way back, it's like, yeah, it's kind of embarrassing that she had to come out, but I mean, I got my face back. My mom can do anything. My mom can do absolutely anything. Maybe you have a similar story. We're going to be looking at Mary this morning, and she does some amazing things in this passage. I want us to look at three attributes that she brings out in this passage and what we know about from her life. And they're the attributes of presence, of protection, and of provision. And I want us also to look at those three areas, not only how Mary exudes them, but also how Christ gives us a more complete picture of what those attributes really look like. Because remember, we reflect God's image, but Christ is the exact image of the invisible God. So we get a more complete picture in him. First of all, I want us to look at the characters that are present. Jesus is being crucified, so he's on the cross. We have Jesus' mother, Mary, right there at the cross. And we have Jesus' mother's sister. So Jesus' aunt, who is unnamed in this passage, but we know that her name is Salome from other passages. We have Mary, the wife of Clopus. And we have Mary Magdalene. She's the one that Jesus drove seven demons from. And John the disciple is referred to as the one Jesus love. It seems odd, the one Jesus love. It's not named John. But in the book of John is the only place that he has called the one whom Jesus loved. And it's thought that since John is the author, it's a humble way that he referred to himself instead of inflating his own head, or floating his own boat, or blowing his own trumpet, or whatever your favorite expression is. It's a way he refers to himself, the one Jesus loved. That's the thought. So first, let's look at this attribute of presence. Because however fierce word loyal, Mary's love is for Jesus. There's not a lot she can do for him at the foot of the cross. She is watching her son being killed in the most grotesque, painful, imaginable way. And it's got to be tearing her apart. There's not a whole lot that she can do. And I think, and I was led this way by some commentaries that I looked at, that there were probably some words in her head from Simeon, who is a prophet. Do you know who Simeon is? Let me read for you. So we have some background. Because Simeon said something to Mary 30 years prior. But the weight of those words, I mean, they had some punch. And they're probably going through her mind because they apply for this moment. You don't need to turn there if you want to. I'm in Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 25. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation. But you have prepared inside of all people a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for your glory to the people Israel. The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of hearts will be revealed. And here it comes, and a sword will pierce your own soul too. It had to be going through her mind. I'm sure you're so overwhelmed in the moment. You take it in, you don't know what it means. But it echoes in your head, is this the time a sword will pierce my own soul? I'm sure she's watching her son on the cross. OK, this is what we're talking about. This is the time, because I feel that sword driving through my soul. And I think-- I don't know what it would be like. I think you have to be a mom to understand what that would be like. I think you have to be a mom to really get it. And yet here she is. She's at the cross. She's present. Christ's torments are her tortures. Just like any mother bleeds for a child who hurts. She's there in an empathetic way. It hurts her worse than it hurts her child. These are the things that I've been told, but I don't know what it's like because I'm not a mom. And I'm seeing moms all over, nodding your heads. So I know that's true. Notice what else is-- it's amazing about Mary's presence that she's there. She's composed. She's not hyperventilating. She's not screaming. She's not howling. She's not wringing her hands and pacing. All of which would be acceptable. We would expect those responses. But she's not doing any of these things. She's composed. She's offering the strength of a mother in her presence. She's strengthened surely by divine power and grace. It's a breathtaking picture of God's presence. But for all its beauty, it's really an incomplete picture. It's a beautiful picture, but when we want a more complete likeness, we look at Christ. Christ exudes His presence on the cross. And this is beautiful because if there's ever a time that we would expect Jesus to not be able to be present, this is it. This is it. There are four major distractions. And any part of one of them would totally eliminate us from helping or being present with anyone. But I want us to look at them briefly. Physically, there's excruciating pain as anyone who's ever slammed their hand with a hammer nose. He has nails driven through his hands and through his feet. And he has been hung on this cross, and they're going to wait there until he dies. It was the most painful and humiliating way to execute criminals. And Jesus is experiencing that. To get close to that-- and we don't really have anything to compare that to. But for migraine sufferers out there, how many migraine sufferers do we have? Nobody. OK. Really bad headache. Really bad-- OK, we got one. OK, you and me. Let's just have a conversation here. When was the last time that you felt like having a conversation with anyone while you had a migraine, or a headache, or nausea, or whatever it is for you when you're right after you've gotten up from retching your guts out, hey, let's visit? Are you able to be present with anyone? Well, this is what Jesus is going through. Enormous pain. And he's present. And he's present. How does that happen? Emotionally, he's distracted because he still has flesh. He's still hanging on that cross. No doubt, Satan is still begging him to curse God. If he dies on the cross, then he takes our sin with him. If Satan can persuade him to renounce God, there's a huge victory there. So we know there's a mental turmoil. He's getting hit from all angles. And mentally, let's not forget, there's a huge crowd around. It's not just the three crosses in Mary and the friends there. It's Jewish leaders. It's Roman leaders. And they're scoffing at him. They're smug. They're yelling. They're mocking. They're ridiculing. Some of them are spitting. Some are jeering. It's chaos. Do you ever try to have a thought of your own when people are yelling at you and you just-- if I can just get away, if I can just get away and be by myself, then I can turn my brain back on and have a thought. You ever try to be present for anyone when you're being overwhelmed in that manner? It's-- it's tough. And spiritually, let's not forget the spiritual part. Why is he on the cross to begin with? He is getting ready to drink the cup of God's wrath. And he knows it. He knows what's coming. This same thought, a few evenings before, produced droplets of blood on his forehead, as he anticipated what was coming. Deeply disturbing. And for all of these things, we know that he's affected. And at the same time, if you look at verse 26, he notices. He sees. He's present. He sees his mother in the disciplily law of John. If you consider the journey in your own lives, the compassion, you've got to be present to really see it. It was a mission trip that you went on where you saw firsthand and you tasted, and you touched, and you smelled, and your compassion were aroused. And you responded in a way that was-- you wouldn't have had the same experience if you weren't there, if you weren't present. And we see in Jesus these things that he's present in all these ways and all these competitions for his mind, his heart, other ways to be distracted by any number of things. And he's not. He's present. Do you know how incredible this is? That our Savior at the pinnacle, roughest time in his life, is able to be present. Do you realize how amazing that is? Any number of those distractions-- and I'm done. I worked with a woman who lost her dad recently. I sat down with her, and I was the good chaplain, and I was with her and talking through, and I waited till she was done. A few days after that, I'm so overwhelmed. I'm fighting a migraine. You understand. You're the only one who understands. I'm fighting a migraine, and I've got my medicine in me. And I look in the corner of my eye, and she's sitting over there, and I think, oh. She really looks down. I can't. I cannot sit in front. I can't. I can't be present with her today. And I just go on, and I go, I'm not the only one I work with other people. Somebody else will have to be there for her today. And that's just one of the distractions that our Savior had. And He's present. It's amazing. It's amazing. What does it mean for us today? He sees us. When we hurt, He sees us. If He can be present for Mary, and the disciple whom He loved, when all this is going on, well, today He reigns as Lord and King at the right hand of God the Father. And He's present. When we hurt, He sees us. He notices us. This means that there's nothing that will touch our lives, that He won't be with us in that presence. And it's the same presence that's promised. Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. I need to hear that. I need to know, because there are a million times in my life, when I feel like He's gone. I feel like I'm just praying to the ceiling. I'm just speaking words into the air. And it really feels kind of foolish sometimes. Do I really think anything's going to happen? Never leave you or forsake OK? Christ is here. I don't trust my feelings. I'm believing the promise, not only is He with me. His compassion is real. He cares. He notices. He sees. He's present. And it's not just a presence. There's also a protection. And we see it in the life of Mary, because there were times that she had occasion to protect Jesus. Think about as a child when she took him to Egypt, because an angel spoke to Joseph that Herod was getting ready to knock off all the kids, two years of age and under, so that he would make sure to kill this Christ child, because he was a threat to his kingship. There's a huge threat. And Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt to escape this event. There's a protection there. There's a protection. And I remember riding with my mom as a child. And in those days, I never thought I'd be somebody that ever said in those days. But this has changed, so I need to clarify. In those days, kids rode in the front seat. And seat belts are what protected us. There were no car seat. And we didn't face it south or north. We just rode in the front seat with our seat belt. And we're driving along. And I can barely see over the dash. But I remember the car in front of us slamming on the brakes. And my mother's arm shot across in front of me. And of course, I had my seat belt on. And I'm sure it was instinct and not physics that drove her arm over, as if her arm was really going to stop me from launching through the windshield. That's what she was trying to do. Do you ever see the people with the mattress on top of their car? And they've got it tied down. But they've got the arm hanging out, like, oh, please. Are you really thinking you're going to hang that like if it comes on tire? Oh, I got it. So I mean, and you know, without a seat belt, if it had really been an impact, mom's arm wouldn't have mattered. But it was the protection that I felt. And I'm like, oh, because when your mom slugs you and they got, you're like, there better be a good reason for this. But I remember in that moment, and I think she would be surprised to hear, I felt protected. Like, I got the seat belt, but my mom's arm is strong. She demonstrated that with those big hits. She's strong. My mom can do anything. And Mary protected her baby, Jesus. And we get a glimpse of God's protection for us in Mary. But for all its beauty, it's still an incomplete picture. To get the real picture of what it looks like. God's protection of us, we have to look at Christ. We have to look at Christ. He protects his mother, because not only in his presence, there's also a protection, because he is noticing from the cross in all of these distractions that there will be something that his mother lacks in his physical absence. And as such, we see him instructing John to take care of her. That's a protection there. And it's not a standalone instance. There are many times that Jesus protects. If you go back one chapter to John chapter 18, starting at verse 4, Jesus knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them. This is when they were getting ready to arrest him. Who is it that you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, I am he, Jesus said. And skipping down, it happens again, verse 7. Again, they asked him, who is it that you want? Jesus of Nazareth, I told you that I am he. If you're looking for me, then let these men go. He's protecting them. It's about me. Then for their sake, let them go. This happens so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled. I have not lost one of those that you gave me. OK, so what? Jesus is protecting his disciples. And he's protecting Mary. His disciples were like his family. Mary was his family. OK, so what does that mean for us? So what? It's important for us because we need to know the character of God to protect, that he's a heavenly father, that he wants to protect, that he has the ability to protect. We've been looking so much about what Jesus undergoes and how he reacts, that we really need to remember what the cross is all about. And I'm just going to read this to you. You don't need to turn there, but it's Colossians 1 starting in verse 19. Be thinking about the cross. Why do we have the cross at all? God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, him being Jesus, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God, that's us. And we're enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, again, us. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. What we have in Jesus is because of the cross. Without the cross, we have nothing. We have nothing without that cross. And it's not just the provision that we have, it's a freedom from the bondage of sin. It's not just a deliverance from sin. It's a freedom from the bondage of sin, the oppression that goes with sin. I'm one of those people that I don't remember a date of being the day that I became a Christian. It's my earliest memory. I've always been a Christian in my mind. But you talk to anyone who remembers what it was like before they got saved. You ever talk to them about what it looks like to really feel the oppression of sin and have no hope, to really feel the weight of bondage? It's hopeless. There's nowhere to go. There's nowhere to go. It's a hard place to be. So in him, we have this protection. And it's not only a presence and a protection. It's also a provision. God provides for us. And we see Mary providing for Jesus. I mean, in a very practical way, she provided for him food and shelter and the love of a mother that only a mother can give. Mary was giving to Jesus, mothers and Mary, know how to give good gifts to their children. You know that as a mother. Her father's probably due to, but not the way a mother can. Not the way a mother can. I work with a woman who she is right now really celebrating the gift of her vision that her mother gave to her. And the background that you need to understand is in the last few years of her mother's life, she has Alzheimer's. And this woman that I work with, her name is Pat, took care of her mother in her own home and working with Alzheimer's patients, I can almost promise you that it's way harder for the families than it is for anything the Alzheimer's patient themselves undergo. Excruciating to watch somebody that you love lose, lose memories, lose long-term memories, short-term memory, lose abilities. And this woman that I work with, Pat, when she was taking care of her mother at a time when her mother was but a shell of her former self, went to the computer and typed and wrote and wrote and wrote, reminding herself the provision that came from her mother's hand and why she loved her so much. She wrote and wrote and wrote, it's this beautiful, really beautiful thing that she wrote. And I have her permission to share just a piece of that. She says this, my mom taught me that when you love someone, you don't stop. She and my dad were divorced after 20 years of marriage. And in all the following years, I never heard my mom say anything bad about my dad. He was always welcome in our home. We were taken to his family for holidays together. And mom was always welcome. Dad remarried after a time. And when he died, my mom sat next to his wife to share her grief. Who does that? Excuse me. She grieved for years for a man I hardly knew and did not understand at all. I always said that I knew my dad had hidden qualities because my mom loved him so much. Part of Pat's mom's provision for Pat was to demonstrate, to model what forgiveness look like during her whole life. She said I don't even know this man, but I knew he had qualities because mom loved him. So surely there was something there that I just didn't get. And to have that lifelong, you know how easy it is for a mom to badmout dad because he's not there, doesn't happen. And she appreciates that. She appreciates that. And I want to address this in this passage. Jesus addresses his mother as woman. And it's hard to imagine how that would be a loving exchange between mother and son, woman. Would that fly with your children? You don't-- kids don't do this with your mom. Just heads up on that. It sounds harsh to us, but it's not the first time we hear this language. We hear it for the first time at the beginning of John in chapter 2. Jesus is getting ready to perform his first miracle. Verse 1, on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. And when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come. It's just-- what does that mean? What is that like? I doubt he addressed her that way earlier. But now something new is happening. Jesus is beginning his ministry. And there's a relationship change that needs to occur. She will always be his mother. And he knows that. And there's still the love there. But Mary will go on to know him not only as son, but also as her lord and her savior and her teacher. And Jesus is making this clear in a loving way. It's probably more loving than we hear it. But through the change in address, he's letting her know, my ministry is beginning now. There's going to be a relationship change. And from this point on, John chapter 2 and forward, whenever he talks to his mother, you hear this terminology. But it's not an unloving. It's not an expression of disrespect at all. Look at the second part of verse 26 and then 27. Jesus commends his beloved disciple to his mother. And he commends John vice versa. And there's a provision for Mary by John. And there's a blessing for John in taking care of Mary. And we see the result. Look at verse 27. From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. Christian writings indicate that Mary lived with John 11 more years before she died. And we know this a variety of different places. It's just a beautiful picture of provision. We get this glimpse of John providing for Mary, and the blessing that's there. And again, for all of its beauty, it's an incomplete picture. It's beautiful, but it's incomplete. When we desire a more complete likeness, we have to look at Christ. What provision does God offer believers? What about the provision for us? Because we've seen how presence and protection. But what's the provision that we have? Christ is with us. He promises to be with us. There's a protection from the effects of sin, the bondage of sin, the oppression of sin. The provision is that it won't always be like this. We were talking about this in our prayer meeting before the service. It's not always going to be like this. And in that is an amazing promise because we were created to worship God. And Christ promises an abundant life here. He said, well, it doesn't feel very abundant to me. But you know what? Only God would venture to do abundance in the midst of suffering. Because that is also very unpopular. But as Christians, we are called to suffer. And we are called to worship God. And there is an amazing provision that comes as we suffer. That you can't get any other way. What other being in all of life do you meet who's suffering? And it's really hurting. But there's an odd sense of joy and contentment. Because God doesn't leave us there. He walks with us. There's a provision there in His presence. There's a provision that our sins don't run our lives anymore. There's an ability to reach out to Him. There's a beautiful love that I don't think has been expressed well ever. But the scriptures describe what it looks like. Here's what the effects of it look like. And in that provision, we're promised, this vision for the future, it won't always be like this. It won't always be like this. And working with hospice, I am constantly trying to invite the patients that I minister to, to dream about what it looks like in heaven. Because they're getting ready to say goodbye to this life and kind of look forward to that. What does that look like? And what's that about? And I just posed some of the questions that I posed to them to you. And I do it to encourage my own heart. What would this world look like without sin? To get through college and save enough to go to seminary, I drove a garbage truck for 12 years. It's a long time. I really loved it. But we won't go into that. I enjoyed that work. Do you think there's going to be garbage trucks in heaven? Well, probably not. Probably not garbage, probably not. OK, now we're working backwards. Do we have streets in heaven? Well, there are streets of gold, not asphalt. What would it look like to have a relationship with somebody and all of the things that normally get in the way don't get in the way? All of the quirks, all of the personality, all present, and yet none of the defenses, none of the things that harbor relationships, that prevent relationships from happening. No misunderstanding. Nobody gets defensive. Nobody is misunderstood. Nobody takes offense at something stupid. You get to know that person as God created them and the beauty of all God meant for them to reflect of his glory, we experience. Nothing gets in the way. Have you ever heard about somebody? Maybe it was even a celebrity or a family member that you just don't have contact with anymore, or you don't see them as much as you'd like. But you know in your heart if I had time with them, if I could just be with them, I know we would have a great relationship. You just can't get there. That's not an obstacle. Can you imagine having all that opportunity? Well, you can't. I love analogies, but I just don't have one to represent what that would look like. I have no idea what to compare that to, but I know it's pretty good. And I never tire of dreaming about it. How cool that's gonna be. And it's not this mystical dream like, oh, when we all get there, there'll be candy on the walls and I, you know, please, just like, what? Is that really, you know, well, I'm diabetic. So, okay, new analogy. We don't have an analogy that describes that, but the things that you long for are there. The Psalms tell us in God's presence is fullness of joy. We cannot experience fullness of joy, the sight of heaven, but it is sure fun to think about. It's amazing to think about. And we were created for that. We were created for that. So when you talk about provision, presence, protection, but provision, there is scripture in the New Testament that says your mind is not able to conceive what God has prepared for those who love him. That is extremely comforting, because when you are done exhausting your imagination about what you hope will be there, God says at the end, when you're totally done, I say yes, and it's better than that. I don't know about you, but I can imagine a lot, a lot. And for him to say, you just go nuts, Brad. And when you're done, I promise you it's better than that. That's provision, that's provision. It's a captivating thoughts. It's a captivating thought. Part of the goodness that we receive as believers, this side of heaven, come through our moms. And today is the day that we honor moms. Thank you moms, mom, if you're listening, thank you. I appreciate you. But when we desire a more complete likeness of what God is like, we look to Christ. And in him we see full presence, the God who notices, the compassion that he cares. There's the protection from the effects of sin, from the oppression of sin. But then there's the provision of all you can imagine and better than that, worshiping God in his presence and enjoying each other. It's beautiful, it's beautiful. Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, if I could express it better, I would. But your beauty is more than my words can describe. And your word gives us promises and pictures of what it will look like. But then you tell us that we're not able to, that it's better than that. Lord, would you remind our hearts of the beauty that is ours in your Son Christ? And Lord, we also want to say thank you for our mothers. The way that they reflect your image in beautiful ways. And who of us doesn't know what the love of a mother feels like, so we praise you for them. We pray in all these ways that you are glorified. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.