When God Created Mothers...

Mother's Day is just around the corner.

It's my second as a mother myself. By next year, I'll have two children.

Motherhood isn't easy - but I have an amazing role model...

As usual with this time of year, I've been thinking a lot about my own mum.

About how lucky I am to have her in my life - as all we daughters and sons are - and how I, like many, don't tell her enough.

But it's difficult to put into words just how important our mothers actually are.

My own mum is so much more to me than her title would suggest - she is my mum, but she's also my mentor, my advisor, my idol, my companion, my best friend.

Always there during good times - and bad.

And still seems to manage to "make everything better" - even now, when any problem I burden her with is far more complicated than a sore knee or a bad day at school.

Which reminds me of a piece about mothers I simply love. My father had a copy framed for my mum many years ago and the words always stuck with me...

Happy Mother's Day mum.

When God Created Mothers

When the good Lord was creating mothers He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said, "You’re doing a lot of fiddling around this one."

And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic; Have 180 moveable parts... all replaceable; Run on black coffee and leftovers; Have a lap that disappears when she stands up; A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair; And six pairs of hands."

The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands... no way."

"It’s not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord. "It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have."

"That’s on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, "What are you kids doing in there?" when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, "I understand and I Love You" without so much as uttering a word."

"Lord", said the angel, toughing His sleeve gently, "Come to bed. Tomorrow..."

"I can’t," said the Lord, "I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick... can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger... and can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower."

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It’s too soft," she sighed.

"But tough!" said the Lord excitedly. "You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure."

"Can it think?"

"Not only think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. "There’s a leak," she pronounced. "I told You. You were trying to put too much into this model."

"It’s not a leak," said the Lord, "it’s a tear."

"What’s it for?"

"It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness and pride."

"You are a genius," said the angel.

The Lord looked somber. "I didn’t put it there."

- Erma Louise Bombeck

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