What I Want to Tell My Mom Today

Reading Time: 3 minutes

 

Mom, you were no where near as delicate as the roses you grew. Thank God for that!

You were a beautiful but hardscrabble woman. Sometimes a bit thorny too. That combination may have been part of why people walked for city blocks to view your vibrant inner-city rose garden. We were all amazed you hacked heaven out of a patch of dirt between a parking lot filled with second-hand cars and the apartment building you managed filled with second-hand people. You loved both the roses and the people nearly equally. I don’t know if you know that rose garden is still there seventeen years after you last fertilized it. Thank you, Mom. You reflected a beautiful but hardscrabble God to us in that rose garden and in your very life! I love you.

Mom was raised on a ranch in southern Colorado during the Depression. One of nine kids. So growing things in tough conditions including her own four children came natural. She taught me to work, to hang in there, to live, to love. Over the years I’ve come to see in so many ways, though imperfect like all of us, out of the many gifts she gave, she reflected for me and others the image of God, the Imago Dei!

Missing my mom through many Mother’s Days and thinking of her and the other significant, gifted, unique, beautiful, imperfect women in my life, I wrote this poem. It is also dedicated to my wife–the mother of my children (The Redheaded-Wild Flower), my two daughters, and granddaughters, and my many female friends who have shaped and formed me. They too have reflected the Imago Dei.

Imago Dei in Her Soul

In the beginning God created 

The heavens and the earth

And shaped round His image 

Humans out of dirt

 

The woman followed man

If creation were a race

But God saw it other

Giving her his creative place

 

Man and woman he gave two hands

And hearts wrapped in skin

But into woman he breathed

The womb where life begins

 

Then whispering words of love

God shared with her his name

“Helper,” “one to turn to”

Whenever darkness reigns

 

A radiant note to her God sang 

Keep eternity before their eyes 

In how you love with selfless strength

Bequeathing forever-life

 

So from then until forever now 

God’s unique and lofty roles

Co-creator, woman, sister, mother

The Imago Dei in her soul

This is a repost from 2013.