Emutha (ܐܡܘܬܐ)
Children, draw near, for this is the heart of my teaching: Motherhood.
Many think Motherhood is only the bearing of a child in the womb, but I tell you, it is more. It is the bearing of another’s life in your heart, the sheltering of another’s soul in your care. One who tends the sick is a mother. One who teaches the young is a mother. One who plants trees for those not yet born is a mother. For Motherhood is not bound to the body alone; it is the choice to nurture life wherever it is found.
Motherhood is a choice. Do not forget this. The womb may quicken, but the heart must consent. The child may come, but the arms must open. I chose to be a mother when the Breath of the Holy One stirred within me, and I chose again each day after, when the nights were long and the path was hard. For Motherhood is not one choice, but many: the choice to rise again, to tend again, to forgive again, to love again.
And I tell you: my husband’s life, too, began with such a choice. For when his mother was young, an angel came to her in a dream. She was told: “The child within you will walk a difficult road, yet through him the world will be blessed.” And she could have said no, for the Breath does not compel but invites. Yet she said yes, and her yes gave life to Yeshua, who became my companion, who bore his share of my burdens, who sheltered me when the world turned away. If she had said no, another way would have been found - but she chose yes, and in her yes, we were all upheld.
So it is with every mother: each birth is a choice, each act of nurture a yes spoken again.
But hear me also: Motherhood is not only for those who bear children. Some will not, yet they are no less mothers if they choose to give life in other ways. The woman who takes in the orphan, the man who shelters the homeless, the elder who passes wisdom to the young - these too are mothers, for they make room in themselves for the life of another. Motherhood is the widening of the heart to include what is not self.
Motherhood is costly. It asks for time, for patience, for tears. It asks for the giving of self even when the self is weary. Yet it is not loss, but fullness. The arms that hold grow stronger. The heart that gives grows wider. The soul that pours out is filled again, as the jar of oil that never empties.
Motherhood is holy. For in it we mirror the Breath of the Holy One, who brings forth all things, who nurses the world with rain and sun, who shelters us as under wings. Every act of true Motherhood is an act of creation, and in it the face of the Eternal is seen.
You will say to me, “But what if I am not gentle? What if I fail?” And I say: even so, you may choose again. A mother is not perfect, but present. She may stumble, but she returns. She may falter, but she tries again. And in the trying, her children learn not only strength, but mercy.
I tell you, Motherhood is the binding of generations. The mother bears the child, the child grows and bears another, and so the stream of life flows unbroken. But it is more: the mother also bears the orphan, the stranger, the wounded, and in doing so the generations are healed.
So, children, do not despise Motherhood, nor think it small. It is the greatest work, though often hidden. Kings are remembered, warriors praised, teachers honored. Yet behind them all stands a mother, who once cradled them, who once chose them, who once whispered love into their ears.
And I say to you: you are all called to Motherhood, in body or in spirit. Be a mother to your own fruit, yes - but also to the fruit of others. Care for the children of your neighbor, tend the land that feeds you both, guard the creatures that share your dwelling. Let no life be outside your embrace.
There once was a woman who had no children of her own. She lived by the road, where many passed. When travelers came weary, she washed their feet. When orphans wandered hungry, she fed them. When widows wept, she sat beside them. Some mocked her, saying, “You are no mother.” But when her days were done, the village gathered, and they said, “She was mother to us all.”
So it is with Motherhood: it is not only of the womb, but of the heart. It is not only birth, but choice. It is not only for the few, but for all who would nurture life.
