By Rev. Chris Surber

The echo of unconditional love resonates from every beat of a mother’s heart.

Even the finest teachers in the most prestigious academic halls are no match for the tender care of a mother holding her baby’s hand while she takes her first step. Not even the most magnificent music played on the grandest organ can match the sound of a mother and her little girl singing the ABCs together in two-part harmony.

But being a mother, as magical and mysterious as it is, can be a truly thankless job. My children have a way of thanking their mother without really thanking her. My 5-year-old son is prone to paying his mother and me compliments in the oddest of ways.

The other day he was thrilled my wife had found a toy he’d lost in a pair of pants as she cleaned the laundry. When she gave him the toy, he exclaimed, “You’re the best Mom I’ve got!” “Thanks,” she said slightly more than half-heartedly, knowing of course that she’s also the only Mom he’s got!

Wrapped up this unintentionally mildly ironic compliment is a sentiment of deep truth and love. She is the only mother he’s got, and she’s the only mother he wants or needs. She’s the mother God gave to him, and he wouldn’t trade her for any other woman in the world. In her eyes, he can become anything; and in his eyes, she already is everything.

We receive life in our mothers’ wombs, and we are nurtured to know and experience life in our mothers’ hearts. A mother’s heart, as with her womb, is a place of profound mystery, beauty and love. In a mother’s love we probably see the closest real-life illustration of the type of love God has for us.

“Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.” (Ecclesiastes 11:5)

I like the way that preacher of old, Henry Ward Beecher, commented on this topic, when he wrote, “The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.”

Mom, you are the best Mom your little ones have. God gave you to them, because you are exactly the one they need. Happy Mother’s Day.

Chris Surber is pastor of Cypress Chapel Christian Church in Suffolk. Visit his website at www.chrissurber.com.