HIS AND HERS

Mom couldn’t get off the couch that day, so I stopped by with a bucket of cleaning supplies to tidy up what I could.  

Because even though her body lay in shambles, she liked to keep her home neat as a pin.  

I felt her eyes on me as I moved around the room, quick feathers along the windowsills, dusting here, dusting there, avoiding the corners of my heart that no one could reach.  

I stopped for a moment to lean over and adjust the pillows behind her, a futile effort to fluff and fix things before she slid away.  

As I turned to continue my work, she reached out to me with arms open and bruised, inviting me into where I longed to be, the place closest to her heart.   I sat near and felt her love wrap around me; her soft cheek pressed hard against my own.  

“You are my smart, precious baby girl,” she whispered, proud and fierce, a mother’s passion that caught me off-guard.  

The feather duster fell from my hand, and I tucked myself next to her on the couch like a little child, lying so close that our hearts beat as one.  

It was then I knew.   

In her arms, I was enough.  

There was no more to be done. No amount of scrubbing or polishing could make my mom love me anymore than she already did.  

She had loved me from the beginning. She would love me beyond the end. Her love would follow me all the days of my life.  

For a mother’s love is born from the greatest love of all - the love of the One True God.  

Love waits for you and me with bruised and bloody arms that opened wide on the cross.   

Love longs to pull His children close against the beating of His heart.  

Jesus whispers, “The work’s already done, my child. Come stay with me and rest. I have loved you from the beginning. I will love you beyond the end. In my arms, you are enough.” 

“But God has shown us how much He loves us - it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!" Romans 5:8 hcsb