Mothers - Ordinary But Dearly Loved

[Disclaimer: I've worked on this post for a while, but I can't seem to communicate my thoughts very clearly...so I give up. I also don't mean to offend anyone by insulting their mother. This is just my perspective. Also, there are obviously many exceptions to every rule. I just try to point out a general observation I made.]

The unconditional love of the mother for the child is well-known, but we don't always talk about the surprisingly unique love a child has for his mother. What makes a mother lovable?

Outside Perspective: Ordinary and Unspectacular

Ever meet a mother that you've heard a friend talk about a lot, who you've heard has a heart of gold and is very interesting, and all you see is a usual, ordinary Asian lady standing in front of you?

From an outside perspective, there's really nothing surprising or exceedingly special about most mothers. Most of the mothers of my friends I've met are wildly unspectacular. Few are memorably funny or witty. Few have cool jobs or awesome hobbies. Few have physical features or attire that stick out in your mind. Few are particularly attractive to me (which is probably a good sign). If someone asked me to describe someone else's mother, I would probably respond with something like, "She's a really nice lady. She's kind of short, has short hair, and talks with a funny accent. She's a good cook/singer/artist. She lets us come over to play every so often and is extremely hospitable." [*I don't think we think about fathers the same way.]

And then I think, "This is the woman that [my friend] loves with all of his heart. This is the woman that [my friend] would die for without hesitation. This is a pretty usual woman, and he loves her unconditionally? Crazy."

I'm not saying that all of your mothers are the same in my head or don't mean something to me, it's just that from an outside perspective, your mother doesn't really have any traits or qualities that deserve unconditional love. The mother that you've talked about so much, that you love with all of your heart, that you would die for - she just looks like a normal lady to me.

Inside Perspective: Dearly Loved

Now this is obviously only half the story. The amount of work and love our mothers put into our lives are pretty amazing, even though it isn't immediately apparent. However, we love our mothers not because of any of their personality traits, career accomplishments, or memorable characteristics. We don't even love our mothers for being good mothers (because this often isn't the case, anyways). The only reason we love our mothers is because they are our mothers.

I'm sometimes (strangely) surprised by how much you guys love your moms, especially for those of you whose mothers I haven't met yet. Hearing your words drip of compassion, love, and respect about someone I've never met before is interesting. It's even more interesting, as said before, meeting the subject of this love in person.

Though our mothers may seem ordinary and unspectacular on the outside, we love our mothers dearly. Even though I may not find your mother to be particularly interesting, I know that you love her with all of your heart. And that's enough. That's enough for me to hold your mother in the highest respect and to love her as an Ah-Yi (or as a Comrade/Party Member Auntie, for all of you Mainlanders).

Mandatory Gospel Plug
Similarly to how we love our mothers (and other mothers) without much of a worldly justification or objective analysis, Jesus loves us without looking at who we are on the outside. He loves us despite our sin and despite our lack of spectacular-ness. Usually the analogy is used in the reverse sense - that God loves us like a parent loves a child, but unconditional love is unconditional love, and we should stay amazed and grateful for the undeserving unconditional love that we receive.

*Aside: I don't think we think about fathers the same way.

When we think about fathers, we think about their job, their physical features, the car they drive, their expertise in hobbies and profession. We think about their personality traits, their humor, and their funny quirks and habits. As an example, when I think about Michael's dad I think about him playing tennis. Justin's dad = tall and used to be a sniper. Eric's dad = has a boat and goes fishing and smokes fish. Tom's dad = retired early and Thomas claims he has like 10 patents and invented the router (also, "hold on, please"). Sang's dad = hilarious and outgoing.  Nathan's dad = pastor at CBC.

[Sorry all you Michigan people for not knowing your dads to include in the above segment. But for fun, you should think about the parents that you know well, and think about what pops into your head when you think of them. Go through all of the mothers, then all of the fathers. My theory is that the mothers will be like what I described before, and the things that pop out about the fathers will be more "interesting"]

TL;DR - Yeah this post really isn't about much. It's just crazy how much we love our mothers without much of a "reason", I guess. Also, we think about mothers and fathers differently.

Iris (a potential mother, as John Heald would say), our mother, and our mother's mother!