When my husband and I were first married we were like little children...naive, stupid, full of ideas that are usually stupid, and thinking the world could not hurt us or be against us.
I remember eagerly telling my Pastor during marriage counseling that I wanted a big family. My husband told him he wanted "at least 12".
I look back on those days...on the blissful ignorance, on the blind trust, and I realize how much we have changed. We cannot will our lives to give us what we want, we can only keep putting one foot in front of the other and go to church to receive Jesus where He promises to be.
A few months into our seminary experience I became good friends with a woman who was pregnant with her 4th child. She was so calm and cool and collected. She was smart and she was efficient at her work as wife and mother. She was clever.
I was pregnant with my first and after we each gave birth she and I began walking the track at the sem and talking for hours over weeks and weeks of walking.
Fast forward 7 years (how is that possible?) and our lives look quite different. I now have four children here and 2 in heaven. She has 7. But her family has been affected by a genetic disease that has left one of her children with serious challenges to overcome.
Out of respect for privacy for my friend I don't want to focus on details of their situation but in recent visits with her something has really stood out to me about her child...though this child does not possess abilities and comprehension levels synonymous with her age, there is something very special about her...something behind her eyes. At first my friend and I joked that she knew far more than she was letting on...and I do believe this little girl is smarter than people give her credit for, but in my most recent visit it hit me...that knowing look we see behind her eyes is the peace of Christ.
This sweet girl may not be the exact same as peers her age but she is a treasured baptized daughter of Christ and her Bridegroom loves her with an everlasting love.
Some people looks at pastors wives as charity cases. Most of us don't wear designer clothes, the stranger of us home school our kids. We don't have a lot of money. We might look frumpy from time to time and our homes might be full of donated and pieced together furniture. But though many TV evangelists would love to have people believe that the sign of a Christian is how materially Christ blesses you, we see in Scripture that some, especially in the Old Testament, were blessed with gobs of kids and livestock while others lived lonely isolating lives with little or no possessions of their own. Elijah the prophet, so loved that he was taken up into heaven in a flaming chariot, is a good example.
My point in all of this is that my friend is a true example of what Christian motherhood looks like. She does not see what the world sees, and for sometimes hours a day she makes the choice to sacrifice her own time where she could be getting things done for her home or herself to do what her little daughter needs most, cuddles with Mama. And friend, your love for her shows. It is not only seen by me, but by Christ. Your love and care for her in the stead of her Bridegroom does not go unnoticed by Him or by your friends like me.
And most of all, it shows in your little girls eyes. They overflow with both visual and hidden joy and peace as she awaits the second coming. If ever there was an example of Christ keeping His promise of faith, forgiveness, and salvation being given in Baptism it is in her.
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