mother's day and Father's (capital F) days

I just finished a wonderful day spent at the Mall of Georgia. It was full of shopping, laughing, eating and great company! The evening ended with a great movie, Thor, on the Imax. Awesome! As the movie ended and I was about to leave the theatre I was consumed with one thought, Donna. Yes, that's right...Donna, Clay's mother. To put it mildly, she is not exactly at the top of my favorite persons list. So why was so so heavy on my mind and heart? It hit me that tomorrow will be her first mother's day without her son. My heart absolutely aches for her. The entire way home it was all I could think about and the hurt for her was so great that I was almost in tears. I was shocked at how overwhelmingly this realization struck me. I thought of her joy on the day she gave birth to him. I thought of all the memories she must have of mother's days past. I thought of her emptiness tomorrow as she goes through her first mother's day without him and of all the similar days to follow. It was tormenting.

Then I had another thought. If I can feel this greatly, as a non-mother, for another woman's loss of a child that seriously negatively impacted me, then how greatly does God mourn the loss of His own children? Now, I don't mean the physical loss since we know that any child of God never really dies since we have the undeserved, grace-given gift of an eternity with out Father . I am talking about spiritual loss. Lost souls, strayed children, children that, like Clay, are separated from a loving parent by a choice they made while their parent is left grieving this choice. If my heart aches for Donna, who simply carried Clay, how does God's heart ache for the child he made? If My heart aches for Donna on this one special day  that is hers but how does God's heart ache on all days which are His? He made us to be His children, to walk with Him and to take part in His glorious blessings. Oh how He must hurt when we choose to separate ourselves from the gift of Him. Oh, how he must long for His children that have yet to chose Him, for those who walked away and even those who simply have faltered. How He absolutely longs to be near to us and how we consistently trade His love for the emptiness of sin. How many time have I separated myself? How am I doing it now? I was so convicted by these thoughts tonight I simply had to write them down. I hope that you have an incredibly blessed mother's day tomorrow and an incredibly blessed Father's day everyday!

Isaiah 59:2 But your sinful acts have seperated you from God

Romans 5:8  But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.