Sunday is Mother’s Day. It is one of my least favorite holidays. I always felt that if I had to have an artificially created day to honor my mom or to be honored as a mom, I wasn’t doing something right.

That said, momhood was never something I imagined or thought much about.

If you had asked me as a child, teen or even into my twenties if I wanted to be a mom, the answer would have been “absolutely not”. I started babysitting fairly young (so had seen many less-than-ideal children), plus had a fair amount of responsibility as the mom substitute whenever my own mom was working to see that was a thankless job.

Something changed when I reached thirty. Gary and I had a good relationship and I hungered to expand our love into a family. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what changed that made me desire children, but many years later, I’m glad it did. I can’t picture a life without Erik and Karl.

But let me be very clear on one fact, I never ever desired babies.

I loved my two passionately when they were babies because they were mine. But I couldn’t wait for them to get past that stage and talk to me.

I have a feeling that will be my reaction, too, when I have grandkids, whatever decade that might be.

There are many people who enjoy babies and I’m glad they exist. There are a lot of babies who need that kind of adoration. I’m just not one of them. I tried volunteering in the nursery for many years before it dawned on me that most people felt good on the other side of that hour. I felt angry and drained.

I’d rather deal with a child exploding through his or her terrible twos than rock a baby.

Maybe it’s because I’m wired as a writer? I need words. I need a way to communicate with a fellow human being.

In addition, being needed as much as a baby needs is suffocating. I’m grateful it only lasts about a year!

The years I would’ve liked to have slowed down were the ones when my boys were learning and growing. I liked homeschooling them. I won’t say it wasn’t without its challenges, but more of it was about the joy of watching them come to terms with the world around them and gain insights into who they were created to be.

I think my favorite moments were either on the couch, holding a book and reading aloud with both of them nearby, or the many hours we commuted to Tae kwon do with the audiobooks playing. We discovered a lot of words together.

Some were not worth our investment. Some we critiqued vigorously. But others? Others we savored and then proceeded to devour everything we could in the series or by the author.

There are many stories that I would not have listened to if it wasn’t for my two guys and their interests. And I would have been less of a person because of that.

Frankly, if it wasn’t for their presence in my life I would have been less all around. I wouldn’t be a black belt. I wouldn’t have memorized Scripture. I wouldn’t have discovered Operation Christmas Child. I wouldn’t be a tutor. I wouldn’t have written many of the stories that I have written.

Their presence caused me to grow.

And that is a big reason why my blog is called Homeschooled by Homeschooling even though it has been many years since I homeschooled.

Being a homeschooling mom changed me dramatically. Not as much as faith in God did, but as close as an earthly relationship can.

Therefore, I am grateful that an artificial observance allowed me to muse on what being a mom has meant to me.

The very first collection of poetry I tried to publish was entitled, Tending the Garden. It never got published. Looking it over as I write this, though, I’m amazed at how many individual poems were published elsewhere. Two even won awards! So I guess my passion for the theme was evident to others even though the chapbook as a whole didn’t see the light of day. (Maybe I’ll self-publish it after I learn the ropes with my margin poems.) All this should let you know that the first commands that God gave to Adam about looking after this world and keeping it have always been very important to me.

Why do I mention all that? Well, last Friday was Earth Day.

And there’s Earth Day in the traditional view where it minimizes the value of people and exalts nature. And there’s Earth Day in the godly, Biblical view where it exalts the God who created both people and nature.

In the traditional view, ecosystems outrank human settlement and animals are worth more than mankind. This is, in part, due to the idea that all of the other stuff came before people and is thus more important.

In a way, that’s true whether you look at the Biblical or evolutionary account. The other stuff came first. It’s just perspective. If you think that first means more valuable, then animals take preeminence. But if you hear what God says, that man was made in his image and all of this creation was prepared for human beings, then nature is subject to man’s rule via God’s design and within His parameters.

Human beings are designed and intended to govern the earth and use its products and resources. That however, doesn’t give us a license to abuse it.

Repeatedly in the history of the earth, civilizations and people groups have cropped up who assume that the earth is theirs to take. This attitude gives them license to strip the earth of trees around their settlement and leave a desert. This conviction assures them it’s their right to take as much of the wealth as they want and leave others to starve.

The sentiment behind creating an Earth Day was to stop the wanton destruction without care for the planet. Again, though, it ignored that the planet was given to people to manage not to coexist with nature.

That doesn’t mean coexisting with nature is a bad thing. It is just a passive thing.

The Bible is not passive about tending the garden. God does not say let whatever grows, grow all the time. The Sabbath year, yes.

For instance, if you are waging war, which God assumes will happen because we are sinful and selfish people, we are given specific instructions in the law about trees. During a siege, a tender of the garden will cut down and use non-food trees only. In Deuteronomy it forbids cutting down fruit and nut bearing trees for the sake of war.

How much ground and how many lives, human and animal, would obeying that principle have saved over the centuries?

A couple of others (also from Deuteronomy) that show God’s intent for man and creation follow:

“If a bird’s nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; you shall surely let the mother go, and take the young for yourself, that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.”

“When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.”

God intends people to plant in season and harvest in that season. He intends for them to care for the animals and preserve the waterways. If you want to see a glimpse of how intently God values what he created and how he wants people to manage it, do your own Bible search. Start with the words plant, sow, harvest, reap. Then ask God how he would like you to tend the garden.

Hallelujah! He is risen!

Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday if you prefer was just a few days ago. Lent is over. The celebration of the resurrection has begun. Technically, it continues until Pentecost when the apostles receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But for me, this is my last Lenten season post. I figured that talking about Jesus as our priest and king after Easter was appropriate.

Also, if anyone who gets my blog wants me to discuss a particular topic, I’m open to suggestions. Otherwise, I tend to go with whatever works its way into my thoughts and/or prayers.

Back to today’s post.

Jesus is our priest. As it says in the book of Hebrews, he is our great high priest. Rather than conduct the sacrifice within the Temple or tabernacle, where it would need to be repeated, he took the sacrifice—himself—to the throne of heaven itself. That makes his sacrifice permanent. That makes his sacrifice holy and complete. He is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Now what does that mean? As far as we know, Melchizedek was a man. He was a king and priest of Salem to whom Abraham offered a tithe. But, and this is a big but, Biblically speaking he was without lineage and without history. He steps onto the pages of Genesis, accepts Abraham’s act of worship and steps off again. We know nothing about him other than his role.

It is this role that Jesus claims. He is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. He is a priest without beginning and without ending. He steps onto earth’s stage to fulfill that role, but he is timeless. He has a lineage on Mary’s side, but none on the side of God the Father. Since the lineage of position comes through the father’s line, Jesus’ position is an eternal one.

But thankfully, for us weak and frail humans, he walked among us, was tempted in every way we are, experienced the limits of mortality, yet was without sin. That means he advocates for us as our personal priest before the throne of the Father. We do not need a human intermediary on Earth because we have a human intermediary in heaven. He is and for all time fully God and fully man thanks to the resurrection.

That doesn’t mean that human pastors, preachers and priests don’t serve a valid role on Earth. They do. They are called as ministers of the word and encouragers of the faith. We just don’t need them to bridge the gap between heaven and earth. Jesus did that and continues to do that.

He is also our king.

Beginning with the gift of gold from the wise men and ending with his declaration to Pilate, “You rightly say that I am king…”, Jesus’ servant ministry glimmers with his kingship as well. He accepted the adulation of the crowd on Palm Sunday as well as the crown of thorns on Good Friday. On the cross, he was also labeled “The King of the Jews.”

But for the most part, Jesus’ kingship is in heaven and in the future during the thousand-year reign. It is these prophecies about the messiah as a glorious king that had confused the Jews and made them hope for a powerful king who would overthrow Rome and rule forever.

The thing is, they got half of it right. He will rule forever. It’s just not in the way they envisioned. First, the serpent’s head had to be stepped on. First, he had to undo the curse that Adam and Eve brought on themselves by listening to the tempter.

But with that accomplished, yes, he reigns. He sits at the right hand of God the Father and will come again.

Starting with Psalm 72, a prophecy written by King Solomon about King Messiah, there is much in the Bible that waxes poetically about the glories of his kingdom. “In His days the righteous shall flourish,
and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more.” In that time, remember, the lion will lay down with the lamb and people from all around the world will come to Jerusalem to honor him as king and bring him tribute.

It sounds so peaceful and wondrous that it is hard to contemplate based on the world we live in.

Yet, it is something we should pray for. Yes, Jesus, your kingdom come!