Miss you Mama…

Journal,

This entry is based on a mother’s day post that I made last year. Can’t really make much improvement. A child’s love for mama has no boundaries. Only God’s love can be greater.

It should go without saying that I miss my mother greatly. Mama went to be with the Lord on Easter Sunday morning, 2005. She was eighty-five years young.

Where did the time go? Mama went to be with the Lord, six years ago. Seems like yesterday.

Well, now we four children are left with our memories. But such memories they are. Actually reminiscing can be a lot of fun when you reach the age of grandpa and great-grandpa. Yep, this August I will be 71 years old. In my figuring it won’t be too long before I get to see mama again.

In the meantime let me share a bit of insight on God’s greatest gift to the man, our mothers and our wives.

The woman in your life

The sage said,

Mama in her mother's arms. Cir 1921.

“Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun.”

Peter also brings this to bear. Listen carefully;

“You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.” (1 Pe 3:7)

Mama - Young unmarried. Cir 1934

Here are the lessons:

(1) The woman is a weaker vessel. (Physical strength. God made her that way. )

(2) The woman is to be honored as a fellow heir the grace of life. (Not as an inferior person.)

(3) The man’s prayers will not be answered if he fails to take these instructions to heart.

(4) None of this takes away from the differing roles of the man and woman. The apostles were careful in this area to let us see how God’s original purpose has never changed.

Mama's first born - 1936 (Bertie)

Created in the image of God

Adam was created first and had covenant responsibility for the family of humankind. But in his relationship to Eve, Adam was not to be without Eve, and Eve was not to be without Adam. Each had a role to fulfill.

Each had gifting that were theirs in particular. Each was given nature traits that belonged to them alone. It would take both Adam and Eve to fully express what the term ‘image’ really means.

Since we know that Adam was given covenant headship, let’s look at what Eve’s role was in relationship to covenant.

Here again we need to see the bigger picture. There are mysteries in the Adam-Eve story that reflect on the total of God’s eternal story. I’ll skim just a bit.

Genesis 2:20, says,

“…there was not found a helper suitable for him.”

Two words are important. Helper is the word ‘ezer.’ This word is similar in some respects to the Greek word, parakletos. As you know ‘parakletos‘ is applied to the Holy Spirit. Jesus said,

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”

Someone who brings freshness

Mama in late 40s

Then we have the word ‘suitable.’ This is also an interesting word. Listen carefully men — Neged literally means ‘in front of’, ‘in sight of,’ or, ‘opposite to.’

It means she is to be ‘before‘ your face. (Not ‘in’ your face.) So Adam needed someone whose giftings were companion giftings, to make up for His own lack in areas. Yes, the Lord also designed Adam where he could not be a lone ranger.

Next we find the Lord putting Adam into a deep sleep.  The Hebrew term for ‘deep sleep’ is not often used. It is close to a death word, in which consciousness of life is not present. This is the word used for Abraham’s sleep where he sees the flaming torch and smoking oven.

1954 - Bonnie in arms and Julia

Here is where we see some of the wonderful mystery of Christ and the church, but also the wonder between a godly man and his wife. (Learn this men, and you will learn how to enjoy life with the woman who you love.)

The Triple lesson

Let’s follow this triple lesson. God presents Eve to Adam. God presents the Church to Christ. God presents the wife to the man.

All this is contained in the Adam-Eve story. But notice one thing in particular. God required Adam to die before He would give him Eve. This is so important to understanding how God’s giftings of maleness and femaleness work. It is never a matter of submerging one’s life under another. It is a matter of merging of lives, where both lives count, but neither is to be without the other.

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Mama in the 60s

“The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.”

Do you see the beauty in this. God fashioned the woman himself. He didn’t fashion her from the earth. He actually took a part of Adam, and fashioned Eve from that part. (Not the head or toe, but from the heart area.)

The very first words that Eve hears, are the words of Adam ‘sanctifying her to himself.’ Here is how Adam sanctified Eve. He looks at her, and says,

“This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.”

(Apply this to Christ and the church and get excited. We are the body of Christ. We are bone of His bone. Flesh of His flesh. He doesn’t fill us full of fear. He sanctifies us by driving our fears away.)

Sanctified love

But there is more to the story of sanctifying Eve. The Lord made her to be more fragile than Adam, and yet with powerful gifting that were hers alone. Therefore Adam was put in a place where he had to recognize Eve as God’s special gift to him. This meant he had to draw her back to himself, and she needed to hear him do so.

Husbands, it is so important that you learn to affirm your wife to yourself. (Holds true with the wife also.) Even in nature, God designed the male to be the one who courts.

To sanctify Eve, Adam had to drive away her fears. This is exactly how Christ sanctified the church to himself. John said that perfect love casts out fears.

Let me add just two more items. Coming back to the image of God. There is a sense in which the woman can serve as a type of the Holy Spirit. This is especially true when you consider her nature and gifting.

There is also a sense in which the man serves as a type of God’s Word. Both are needed for life. (The woman provides the womb and egg. The man provides the seed. Just something to think about.)

The Word without the Spirit can produce legalism. The Spirit without the Word can produce instability. Perhaps this is why Jesus said,

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6:63)

Finally, when it comes to covenant issues, there is no stronger spiritual working power on this planet than a man and his wife who are in spiritual union. All the promises that relate to ‘two’ people doing something, find their greatest impact in the godly marriage.

And on to the love of a mother

Yes indeed, I loved and still love my mama. She was the one who taught me to pray the little child’s prayer of, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep.’

She was my confidant and the one to whom I could open my heart and she with me.

And so to all my readers I leave this precious Psalm with you:

“O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forever.” (Psa 131:1-3 NASB)

And to all you women in we men’s lives. We love you more than words can say.

Here is your song, ‘This Amazing Love.’ – By a twelve year old girl.

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Always in Christ,

Buddy