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Mother to the rescue
Here’s a story our German friend, Rita, shared with my family.
She told us how her older brother was a prisoner of war during the Second World War in the then Soviet Union. His family back in Germany had no information on his whereabouts for a long time, even after the war had ended.
During this period, Rita explained, her mother would visit a POW camp in Germany that held Russian prisoners. She would stand outside the fence of the camp and offer the prisoners whatever small amounts of food she could share. When her friends would ask why she would make the effort to do this, she couldn’t explain why she felt compelled to carry out this compassionate gesture. She would continue her visits despite not knowing the whereabouts of her own son in Russia. Rita told us how they had never expected to see her brother again. There was no information on whether he was even alive.
The Love those women reflected must have meant the world to the prisoners on both sides.
After a very long time, Rita’s brother was finally released with other German prisoners and returned home to be repatriated with the family. In explaining his experience, the brother shared how difficult it was to survive and that there wasn’t much hope for any of the prisoners to go on. He did say that the little hope he had stemmed from visits to the camp by Russian mothers, who would often stand outside the fence of the compound and offer the prisoners small amounts of food. He explained how much comfort their very presence outside the fence of the prison camp gave them.
Could this story of compassion be a mere coincidence, or is it evidence of a greater mothering love, God’s Mother-love, that transcends nationalities and families? The divine Love those women reflected must have meant the world to the prisoners on both sides.
It is easy to think about the fatherhood of God, but what about God’s motherhood? Because God is Love, we can appreciate those mothering spiritual qualities God bestows on man, God’s beloved and spiritual idea. If we think about creation, we can think of how much God nurtures and supports us when we might seem not strong enough, and consider God’s tender mercies which uphold us. Love never stops providing.
This Mother’s Day, we can celebrate those nurturing aspects of who we are, and realize that each one of us has the capacity to express these Godlike qualities.
About the author
Mark Pierce lives in Long Beach, California.