*May 10, 2009 


**Mother's Day 


*Excerpt from John 15:1-8 


"Abide in me as I abide in you." 


*Reflection by Christina Villa 


*My mother died in 2005, early on an April evening. I thought I'd never 


fall asleep that night, back in my childhood bedroom, but the next thing 


I knew I was hearing the chirping of birds at dawn, while it was still 


dark. It was another day, the first in a world without my mother. And 


yet there I was, hearing the birds chirping. "Abide in me, as I abide 


in you." I still had my life to live, the life my mother had given me. 





My mother graduated from Teacher's College, first in her class, the year 


I was born. It was an accomplishment she never expected of herself. 


She didn't learn to drive for another five or six years, and all her 


life never drove on a highway. But once she could drive, she could get 


a job, and she became an English teacher at a community college, an 


achievement she took a silent but immense pride in until she finally 


retired at 72. 


In her college Yearbook next to her picture was a quote, her own words: 


"Women are people, too." This was 1955; my mother was an early feminist 


without knowing it. Today, on Mother's Day, mothers everywhere are 


honored for being mothers. To honor my mother, I want to say: let's 


also honor our mothers as people, for who they are or were, for what 


they have accomplished and what they care about. Let's honor their 


hopes and dreams, too-those things that make them people, too, as well 


as our beloved mothers.


*Prayer


*Thank you, God, for our mothers, for who they are or who they were. 


They abide in us always. Amen.


*About the Author


*Christina Villa is on the staff of Local Church Ministries, United 


Church of Christ, Cleveland, Ohio.