Post-Mother's Day murmurings

Sue came into the church office in order to help with some paperwork and plans for Sunday morning worship. “What are we doing for Mother’s Day?” she asked.

I paused. I had always benignly neglected Mother’s Day at our church. I thought of it as a Hallmark holiday, and not something that should fit on a liturgical calendar. I was taught in seminary that we should never mention it. Plus, there were personal reasons as well.

I had memories of my Baptist upbringing, where they would give a hydrangea to the oldest mother and the youngest mother in the congregation in an elaborate ceremony. There seemed to be an underlying message in the ritual: A woman is made for motherhood… and not much else.