Happy Mother's Day!

After today, I wish that every day was Mother's Day. Gorgeous, sunny, quiet, and all together lovely. We had a surprise church service yesterday afternoon, so today didn't even include that commitment. It did start out a little bleary eyed, however, since we went to the drive-in movie theater last night and actually stayed for both features. In truth, I do not remember the last time I stayed out that late.

Today we went and had breakfast at The Cookery and then walked around town and down to the beach and docks. From there we went home, took care of chores, and planted some lilac bushes which were Jen's mother's day gift. Once done we made lunch and headed out on the boat for Adventure Island and then to Chamber's Island. We both actually fell asleep after lunch. It was wonderful.

By late afternoon we were back home and I made a salad and grilled two rib eye steaks on the grill. A simple dinner but excellent especially when combined with the remainder of a gift bottle of Primus, a multi-grape blend from Chile. Apparently the original grape roots came from France in the early or mid 1800's and, after the French vines got clobbered by some mold or something 50 years later, the French actually bought some root stock back and rebuilt their vineyards. However, one grape was never reintroduced but did remain in Chile. That grape is relatively indifferent as a solo grape but makes for an excellent blender; the same idiosyncrasies that prevent it from starring on its own add delightful differences to a blend. In any case this bottle, a 2007, was one of those fun wines which just roll out flavor. 30 seconds after a swig, you are still tasting things not present immediately. Highly recommended and a nice companion to the steak.

But the thing I really enjoy about Mother's Day is that component nearest to me, namely "mother-of-my-children dayness". That a little awkward, but the idea is this; the primacy of my relationship shifted from being my parent's child to being my wife's husband about 25 years ago. So, with all due respect to my own mother, "mother" to me first brings the image of Jen as she is the mother most immediately in my life. However, of course, she is not my mother. But, the fact of her motherhood to our kids only reinforces her status as my wife. To put it simply, were she not my wife, she would likely not be my children's mother.

So I reflect on her status as wife (and by extension, mother). And what I find delightful are the components of woman/wife/mother which are intrinsically different (thank God) and which are un-ascertainable to me as man/husband/father.

In Genesis 2, God looks around and finds no "helper" for Adam. Unfortunately, the beauty of the hierarchical truth found in that comment and in God's solution has been frantically twisted and successfully hijacked for confusion and evil for most of the Christian history.

But truth is truth, and there is a profound truth here hidden from English translations. It is, simply, this; in almost every other instance when that same Hebrew word is used in the Old Testament, it refers to God as our 'helper'. How awesome is it, how profound a calling and purpose, how high a standard is set when God himself sees that human relationship is unfulfilled without the presence of women and refers to their absence in the same term used to identify his aspect as our helper? Women carry in their created marrow the image of God as help to our need. Very cool. Thank God for women and Happy Mother's Day.