Dear God,

We see your fingerprints all over the precious mothers around us! They have loved us by sacrificing their bodies—you loved us the same way on the cross. They have loved us by preparing homes and meals for us—and you do the same for us in heaven. They have loved us by caring deeply for seemingly insignificant details in our lives—and you do the same for us every moment. They are doing the things that you placed in their DNA to show the world what YOU are like. We praise you for mothers, God, because you came up with them in the first place, because they bear your image so faithfully by the way they love, because you didn’t have to give the world the good gift of mothers—but you did. We praise you for they are fearfully and wonderfully made!

We’re celebrating mothers today not because we deny the pain and loss that many in the room are enduring—but we celebrate because pain and loss do not win and do not have the final say. Because of your work on the cross, we no longer are dominated by sin and shame, and we place our hope in the day that you’ll come again and wipe away every tear and “make every sad thing come untrue” (Tolkien, The Return of the King). Be near the precious brothers and sisters who are enduring a broken heart because they miss their mama and they long to be with her, or they long for her to be motherly in a way she never was. One day this will not be so, but for now, we beg you to be near! We believe you when you promise to be near the brokenhearted. Please remind my dear brothers and sisters that its right to grieve this loss because it is profound. Remind them that you are a God who grieves alongside us. Thank you for knowing how to cry with us and for carefully counting every tear, for ensuring that not one of them will go to waste. But God, also remind these dear brothers and sisters that these motherly things they long for—being held, being known, being cherished—Oh God, every one of them can be found in you! When our mothers hold us, guide us, cherish us, know us, love us, and like us—God, they are bearing your image! On a day like today, when many in the room are longing for their mothers, dear Lord, will you gently lift up their eyes, will you gently show them that the true longing of our hearts is a longing for you, and you are here, Immanuel, God with us. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain separating your holy home in the temple from the rest of the world—it ripped in two, and it screamed out to the world, “I want to be with you!” Thank you God for sending Jesus so that we can be together!

And God, for the women in the room who ache to mother, we pray that they would feel seen. You have searched them and known them. You know when they sit down and when they rise up. You discern their thoughts from afar. See how fiercely they love little ones whose faces they do not know! See how desperately they long to bear your image in this particular way! We praise you for this fierce love because it reminds us of you. Father, we know that they are seen by you, but we pray that they would no longer doubt it. We know they are seen by you, but we pray they would feel seen by your church, by your people. We know that they are seen by you, but we pray that they would see you back. You have been with them in this wilderness the whole time. You have not left for an instant. You have not been unkind or unjust or unloving for a moment—not for a moment! In fact, you have spared no good thing because you did not spare your son Jesus. Make the tremendous parental sacrifice of the gospel feel brand new to us on this Mother’s Day.

And God, because we know that we are your daughters and your sons, we are free to approach your throne and humbly tell you what we want—just like children are always free to tell their parents what they want. We ask that you give children to these longing women. We believe that you are the life-giver, and we ask you to give it! But we understand that you write stories better than we can, and we trust your pen. We praise you for the precious gift of discipleship because “in the kingdom of God, there are no barren women” ((A)typical Woman, Abigail Dodds).

And for those of us who are mothers but who may be battling unmet expectations or feeling unseen today—humble our hearts. Remind us that you see us, remind us of the gifts of grace you lavished on us through your son Jesus. Because he took our sin and shame, we no longer have to be oppressed by our insides. We can celebrate wholeheartedly because we have you, and because we have you, we are rich indeed.

On this day, we celebrate mothers because they bear your image, and as a church we collectively and affectionately remember our secured place as your family. You no longer look at us and see the sin that once consumed us—you see Jesus’s righteousness. We were once enemies, but through the gospel, you have given us your name, and we are your children forever.

Dear God, thank you for the good gift of mothers and for all the ways they teach us what you’re like. On this day when many long to mother and be mothered, we celebrate the way you mother us. You will never fail to sing over us. Amen.