Motherhood… hands
and feet of Jesus
pamela spurling
It
was with shear astonishment that I
held my first child - our first
child - twenty-eight years ago, and
it was with awe and humble amazement
that I saw that God had, indeed,
given us a precious gift. I saw my
Lord and Saviour in a whole new way.
It wasn’t just that He had forgiven
me of my sins, redeemed my soul and
had given me the free gift of
salvation and eternal life,
never-to-be-separated from God
through faith by His atoning death
and resurrection, and it wasn’t just
that He had blessed my womb, but
also that He had thought on me, that
He had visited me and had allowed
this very imperfect vessel to be
used for His glory and His purposes:
He had created me to be a mother — a
joyful mother of children (psalms
113).
He, in His wisdom and mercy,
created me to mother, tend to, train
up and be an example to children He
would create in my womb. That fact,
eleven times over, is completely
breathtaking to me. And so, knowing
that, I have a very serious charge
to keep; I am, in the beginning: the
Hands and Feet of Jesus to my
children.
I mull that thought over and
over. I have failed over and over to
keep that charge. I have failed over
and over to be what He’s both
designed, called and equipped me to
be. I’ve closed the door, I’ve
hidden in my bathroom, I’ve become
absorbed by the gotta do this and
gotta do that’s of each day.
I’ve often attempted to do in the
flesh what can only be done in and
through and by the Spirit of the
LORD. I’ve wasted time, wasted
energy, wasted talents, wasted
resources and wasted His Words… on
trivial pursuits — often forgetting
I had been given a charge to keep. I
had heard the Word and often counted
it as words that were simply for
knowledge about God and accumulation
of knowledge about His Word. Early
on, I knew a small bit of the Word
and assumed I knew enough to coast
on through… but that knowledge was
not enough to carry me through (and
certainly not to coast on through)
for the walk of a Christian mother
is not the walk of a proud actress,
one who learns some lines and play a
part. There’s no sliding into heaven
on one’s backside. The walk of a
Christian mother is not a coasting,
slide — it is, in fact, often a walk
on the knees.
So if a mother is to her
children, the Hands and Feet of
Jesus, what does that look like? How
does that work? What do they see?
It’s not always so much that I give
our children Truth, but that I give
them Truth in a package of grace and
mercy. O, they need the Truth; for
their faith will come by hearing and
that by the Word of God (Romans
10.17). The longer I live, the more
I see that being the Hands and Feet
of Jesus to them is a life of
sacrificial mercy; for that’s what
true love is: sacrificial mercy. I
sacrifice for them - I do for them
both what they cannot do for
themselves, but what I would want to
be done for me as one helpless under
the care of another. I think of them
as His children - His gifts - His
special creation and I look to Him
to guide my steps (being His Hands
and Feet to them) so that I will
walk in the way He would have me to
walk so that they will be instructed
in the way they should go.
I think of it like this when I
pray:
Lord, please help
ME
instruct them in the way they should
go.
Lord, please help me
INSTRUCT them in the way they
should go.
Lord, please help me instruct
THEM in the way they should
go.
Lord, please help me instruct them
IN the way they should go.
Lord, please help me instruct them
in
THE way they should go.
Lord, please help me instruct them
in the
WAY
they should go.
Lord, please help me instruct them
in the way
THEY should go.
Lord, please help me instruct them
in the way they
SHOULD go.
Lord, please help me instruct them
in the way they should...
GO!
And they will go. Believe me,
they will go. In what way will they
go? It is sobering and humbling to
consider that we have MUCH to do
with the WAY they will GO. Will they
have been nurtured up in the fear
and admonition of the LORD and will
I have been sacrificially the Hands
and Feet of Jesus to them? Will I
wash them and bathe them in prayer?
Will I walk and talk with them along
the way as I have been instructed to
do? (Deuteronomy 6.7) Will I have
been mercifully the Hands and Feet
of Him to them as I guide them and
correct them? Will I have been, in
WORD and DEED, in Truth: the Hands
and Feet of Jesus by my words and
service to them? Will I have been
the Hands and Feet of Jesus when I
hand them over to Him and say, Not
my will but thine be done, Lord?
O, God my merciful Father, will
You be my hands and feet as I walk
with You and hold Uour children in
my life and will You be my words, my
deeds, my hope and my strength—for I
know I cannot, nor do I wish to, do
this job on my own. O, Lord, please
use this vessel, please strengthen
my frame and fill me that they will
only see You in me.
