Highly Esteemed
Which do you think is better, old or new friends? I recently ran into an old friend, Dr. V. Birch Rambo, a famous Presbyterian medical missionary to the Congo. Birch and his wife, Peggy, served in the center of the Congo at the Good Shepherd Hospital in the village of Tshikaji. They served in medical missions from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s in the former Zaire, which is the present day Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Peggy is now living in a nursing home, and quite honestly, she is getting ready to go see the Lord. As I visited with them, I remembered all the times that Peggy hugged me, encouraged me, yelled at me, had gotten mad at me, fussed over me and fed me. This dear woman was much like my own mother.
I want to wish a very happy Mother’s Day to old and new friends and old and new mothers. Whether you have your own children, have adopted children, only have step-children or have been like a mother to many children, I want to thank all of you women for taking the time to care for so many of us. You are the personification of the love of Christ in the world today.
Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:2-3 of one of the Ten Commandments given to Moses:
“Honor your father and mother’—which is the first commandment with a promise—’that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’”
Honoring our parents is not conditional. We don’t honor them if they are respectful to us, if they are kind to us or if they are great parents. We honor our parents in obedience to God because He has commanded us to do so. We have a promise, though, that when we honor our parents we will enjoy a long life as our reward.
Today, on Mother’s Day, let your mother know how much she is cherished and loved. If your mother has already passed away, you can still honor her by living your life in such a way that it is a testimony to the values she instilled within the family. We cannot choose our parents, nor can we choose the circumstances by which we were raised as a child. However, as adults serving Christ, we can choose to love, honor and cherish our parents and thus bring honor and glory to God.
