My "It's Not Complicated" Mother

 

Question: What these four people, Bill/Melinda Gates and Justin/Carole Smith have in common?

Answer: They are all using the “it’s complicated” argument. The billionaires who are divorcing after long years of marriage because “it’s complicated”. And the churchgoer couple from the Chicago suburb who didn’t visit their mother (who lives less than an hour driving from their home) in three years now. Because they live a busy life and, of course, “it’s complicated”.   

Life can be busy, I agree. But the 5^th commandment is not complicated at all. There is a touching moment in Romans 16 that chokes me up nearly every time I think about it. Paul is sending his personal greeting to his friends in Rome.  He says, effectively, “Say hi to Rufus…and to his mother who was a mother to me.”  (v. 13)

We know who Rufus was - the son of Simon of Cyrene who carried the cross of Christ on the last leg of the Calvary ordeal. This means that Simon (probably) went home from that experience a changed man. And he shared the power of that moment with his wife who then, likely, shared it with her sons, Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21).

Are you not moved knowing that she and her sons heard from her husband about his close encounter with Jesus? And then, in a remarkable intersection of faith and providence, she shared it with Paul.

 Paul may have learned about the final moments of Jesus’ earthly life from the wife of the man who carried the Lord’s cross, Simon of Cyrene. She was like a mother to him. And he’s honoring her in his remarkable document-letter that is know part of God’s Holy Word.

 Her care and Christlike love toward Saul, the murderer-turned-missionary, should inspire us all. Without knowing who he would become, she was a mother to the most significant convert in the history of the church. Glory to God for mothers like her. For my mother, Olga and mother-in-law Vivian, for your mothers, soft or severe, living or dead, who’s influence is going to last forever.

 I’m sure, it was complicated for my mother to raise me. 

Very complicated. 

But she did it. 

Thank you, Lord, for my mother!