You Are Seen

There has been a flurry around our school this week getting ready to spoil our mums. I have loved watching your kids get excited about how much they love you. I want to acknowledge that Mother’s Day can be one of mixed emotions, depending on your family story. I have grown in my own journey of motherhood over the years. I never knew until becoming a mother what it felt like to have your heart living outside of your body. Motherhood is both delightful and terrifying, both exhilarating and exhausting. I never knew until we lost my husband’s mother how heartbroken I would be to see all the advertising coming up at this time of year. I never knew until I had children how tough it was for my mum raising four kids as a single parent. I never knew until I held a grieving mother in my arms how every missed milestone and cherished memory could remind you of what you no longer have to hold.

I am reminded of Hagar in Genesis 16. A young mum who was alone, terrified, abused, desperate and abandoned. God found her and she named Him “the God who sees me”. The Bible is full of stories of women who were desperate to be mothers, who were pregnant in unfortunate circumstances, who buried their children, who had no children, who gave their children to another to be raised by them, who witnessed or caused broken relationships with their children, who left their families and who gained new unexpected ones. Real messy, real life, real women.

To the mums with empty arms, you are seen.

To the children without mothers, you are seen.

To the mums doing it solo, you are seen.

To the mothers who have never held a living baby, you are seen.

To the mums whose kids don’t acknowledge them, you are seen.

To the kids who can’t talk to their mums, you are seen.

To the mums dealing with teenaged drama, you are seen.

To the mums with someone else’s poop on them, you are seen.

To the mums who are trying to find a new identity in an empty nest, you are seen.

To the mums raising someone else’s kids, you are seen.

To the other family members stepping in where a mother is missing, you are seen.

There is a God who sees you, who knows you and who delights over you.

You are not alone.

Pr Bethany Chapman

Chaplain