We Love Our Grandchildren When We Love and Support Their Parents

Being a mother is a journey. The responsibility is huge, but the joy is even greater. At the outset, our lives are immediately and forever changed because our hearts are involved in a different way than ever before. The change prepares us for the trip but also makes us vulnerable along the way.  As we go, we bask on the mountaintops of exceeding joy and struggle through the valleys of difficulty. The shared adventures of happiness, sadness, laughter and tears, provide a strong bond for the family of origin.

When our children marry, our journey changes but is not over. It is enriched, first by their spouses, then by their children. Just as the mother's family multiplies, so does her love. The heart has a great capacity to love. Our children's spouses are a treasured part of our family and we receive them with joy. But the excessive and outrageous love one feels for a grandchild is a mystery. Mixed up in there somewhere is the inseparable love for their parents. Where one stops and the other ends is not detectable. We love our children when we love their children and we love our grandchildren when we love and support their parents. The role of grandmother doesn't replace the role of mother, it gives it another dimension. Mothering your grandchild's mother is an act of love displayed through nurturing. What an honor!

Do you know the story of Rizpah in 2 Samuel 21? She is not well known and it might be easy to miss her in scripture. Her sons were hung on a mountain for something they did not do. Her sacrificial love prompted her to stop her life for what was probably about six months. During that time, in love she protected their bodies from vultures and wild animals. She faithfully stayed with them until the king came to bury their bodies. She was a mother.

There is one that loves more than a mother. His name is Jesus! He died for sins He did not commit and lives again! He did it all. Sacrifice, protection, faithfulness, unconditional love, giving up His life for someone else. We can know Him better through our human efforts in the role of a mother. But He did it with perfection!

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms 

(Ephesians 1:18-20 NIV)