Mother: Our First Touch of God

(Pictured is my mother, Frances Amelia Lee Whitt at the age of 16, soon after she married my Daddy on December 13, 1936.) 

A debate has gone on in the world about when life begins.  There is no doubt in my mind that it begins at conception.  In a spiritual sense, it began before the beginning of the world.  The one verse that draws water from this depth of mystery is Ephesians 1:4 (NKJV), “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4 NKJV).  The Book of Life as described in the Bible is God’s record of those destined to possess that all important yet mysterious essence called life.  The final judgment of God and the eternal destiny of man are hinged on man’s response of faith to the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul in his address to the philosophers of Athens made that wonderful statement about God, “for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring’” (Acts 17:28 NKJV).  So our first gift from God was life.  Then God chose women to be the womb of life given by God.  Science would love to reduce this to a biological happenstance but it is our Creator’s grand design of life and its continuation.

So it is with our mother, she is our first touch of God.  In that moment when an egg and a sperm unite, life begins in the womb of our mother.  During the nine months of growth, we go from almost nothing to a baby that can breathe, eat, and make messes.  We begin attached to her for our very life blood but growing eventually to living independently of her body but never separated from her nurture and love.

At birth, we are handled by doctors and nurses in caring ways but our first real touch of love is our mother’s touch.  Her soothing voice and loving caress becomes our place of comfort.  We will learn to love and socialize with others but she will be the arms we run to when the world knocks us down and life skins our knees.  She will be our safe place where our wounds are healed.  Again, she will be the touch of God’s caring love before we can even get close to understanding the concept of an eternal God.

Our mothers think the best of us and want the best for us.  She is never in competition with us wanting more than we have.  Her touch of loving desire resembles God; who wants the best for us and is willing to sacrifice His very best for our mortal and eternal best.  Suddenly, our mother looks a lot like Jesus—willing to give it all so we could have it all.

As Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end so our mothers are the first touch of God and in many ways the eternal touch as well.

Harry L. Whitt