Sunday reflections...

So, today in worship,
the youth did a clown service under the great leadership of our seminary intern.  The youth love dressing up in clowning attire, and basically, the service is totally mimed, with a narrator.  They did a twist on the text of the lost sheep, where the shepherd goes after one, and then...the question we all have---what happened to the 99?   In the service today, they wandered off and disappeared.  Hilarious.  

We sang Beatles songs and Down by the Riverside.   The sermon was the St. Dr. Seuss story of The Lorax.   The clowns took the offering, and shared hershey kisses at the same time. They played Ode to Joy and Jesus Loves Me on kazoos.    They were awkward, wonderful, and beautiful clowns.  

It was lovely, and silly.  And deep.

I have to confess, as I get older, Mother's Day becomes more poignant for me.  I know I nurture many, I know that I am "mama" to many furry babies.   I share love, and caring....and am a mother in so many ways.

But I do mourn the fact that I have never given birth.  Our choice not to have babies.   I heard on the radio today someone who described parenthood as "mortgaging your soul" because it all rests on the happiness and well being of this person you have brought into the world.    And I know, too, that parenthood is one of the hardest and most difficult challenges of life.      If life circumstances had been different, I know I would have been an amazing and probably terrible mommy.  Both and.   Sigh.  This day, I admit, it is hard.  

Even though I celebrate all the ways in which I nurture...and the way in which we all nurture, and in the way our Mother God loves us.

May it be so.
Amen.