Today’s find: A mother’s love

Today’s find: A mother’s love

Tom and Ray Magliozzi got scolded on the air by their mother yesterday.

As it turns out, Mama Magliozzi’s voice was recorded a few years ago…before she passed a on to that great auto bay in the sky. But if you’re a fan of the ‘Tappet Brothers’ and their popular Car Talk radio program, then you know the ‘boys’ were not exactly spring chickens, even when their mother was doling out her advice ‘live.’

I always get a kick out of listening to Mrs. Magliozzi giving her grown sons heck: Yesterday, it was for walking around in dirty t-shirts and stinking up the place with their cigars.

I’m not much of a cigar smoker myself, but I still catch heck from my Mom every once in a while – usually for things like not taking my ‘family visit’ obligations seriously enough.

And the woman I am married to happens to be a Magliozzi-class Mom, too: She loves our now-grown children with a constancy and level of affection that is a wonder to behold.

Thanks, Mom!

The great Moms are like that, aren’t they?  They never stop being Moms…no matter how old their children have grown to be…or how independent the offspring like to think they’ve become.

Sure, there are times when all that motherly attention and concern can seem a bit over-the-top…maybe even a tad irritating. But in recent years, I’ve come to appreciate more deeply just what a blessing it is to be loved with a great mother’s love. Through prison ministry, I’ve had occasion to meet a few men who did not grow up with the kind of love I’ve always taken for granted. One told me of his earliest memory – wandering the mean streets of his Chicago neighborhood as a three-year-old, looking for a place to sleep and a bite to eat.

To state the obvious: It’s considerably more difficult for him…than it has ever been for me…to grasp the concept of unconditional love. He’s never really known it. But it’s always been a part of my life.

And more to the point: By hearing my Kairos brothers’ stories, I’ve come to appreciate how a mother’s love is a choice. She’s not obligated to give it – not really. Some mothers can…and do…walk away from their children. Some mothers are so damaged themselves that they have nothing to offer their children but pain.

So on this Mother’s Day, I resolve to thank my Mom…and all the great mothers I know…for doing what they do so well. And for doing it, always…for ever.

While I’m at it, I think it might also be a good idea to meditate a bit more deeply on the way this truth can flower in my life:

A mother’s love is a gift, freely given, like grace.

It is both a hint and a reminder of the great love that is available to us from the Giver of all good things.

It is gift that we are meant to share, and that is never diminished in the sharing.