Church is God’s big family - Let’s honour every kind of mothering this Mothering Sunday

From lost children to spiritual mothers, this article calls the church to celebrate and include all who nurture, support, and offer family in the way God designed

One of the things that I love most about being a Mum is receiving hand delivered tokens of love. I have kept notes from my now-teenagers, one of whom, at six, declared they loved me nearly as much as their favorite toy. I have photos of a special stick found ‘just for me’ by a sweet little redheaded boy who is now as tall as I am. 

And I remember the Mother’s Day weekend where a precious young person who was with us went missing and how it felt when we found them - relief that they were safe and heartache because of what they were experiencing. We sat on the steps near the park for a long time that Sunday. Some of it in silence, some of it laughing as we played ‘guess the colour of the jelly bean’ and sometimes I simply absorbed their anger and pain. 

As a Mother’s Day experience, it wasn’t very instagrammable and if I’m honest I might have chosen lunch out somewhere other than a local park. In the midst of this messy day there were glimpses of joy and important moments of connection but I’m not sharing the memory because there was a ‘happy’ ending but because it was one of the most significant mothering moments I’ve had - deeply costly and a huge privilege.