Tag: motherhood

I Learned Something Crazy

Dale Pollard

There’s a process in which cells from a developing baby cross the placenta into the mother’s body during pregnancy. These baby cells can migrate into the mothers’ tissues and organs like the brain, heart, liver, skin, and bone marrow. This can stay in the mother for decades or even for a lifetime (FFM,cordblood.com). The different effects this has on the mom aren’t entirely understood– but there’s some interesting theories. Some studies seem to show that the DNA of a mother’s children can help fight off the growth of tumors or integrate into her tissue and help repair damages. It goes deeper than that, so feel free to chase the rabbit on your own.

Here’s what words came to my mind:

Intimate & Formation

“You create my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139.13-16).

We don’t understand how true that passage is but the more we discover, the louder it becomes.

Pain, Protection, & Connection

With painful labor, the mother of all living (and every mother since then) gave birth to children (Gen. 3.16, Gen. 3.20). Motherhood is a God-ordained role of sacrifice and protection. The modern understanding of microchimerism shows that she will literally carry living remnants of her children and afterwards she’s biologically “programmed” for lifelong connection and care.

Mystery & Image

“That’s why man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen. 2.24).

Paul would describe this as a “profound mystery” (Eph. 5.31-32).

While this is primarily about marriage, the “one flesh” language elucidates that fancy cellular mixing that occurs by design. Why would God make us like this? Probably for many reasons that aren’t understood yet, but it shows us how the image of one can be transferred and mixed with another.

A husband and a wife are mysteriously intertwined. A child’s DNA integrates with its mother. Those two things help us wrap our minds around Genesis 1.26-27 where God states that His creation is made in His image. What does that mean? It likely means more than we understand, but it seems to be illustrated in the overall design of mankind. Its complexity is another reminder of our immortality, purpose, and connection to our Creator.

A Story With Many Points

Neal Pollard

Several years ago, when preaching in Virginia, I spoke with a sweet, 69-year-old woman who had watched our TV program and wanted to speak to me. During the course of our visit, she told me a story I will never forget. Tearfully, she told me of her 14-year-old grandson, Matthew, who locked himself in his room, took a pistol, put it in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. He was rushed to MCV Hospital in Richmond. He survived, but the bullet was permanently lodged in his sinus cavity and he was in constant, relentless pain. The greatest pain, however, was not physical. It was emotional and spiritual. Matthew’s mother and father routinely flew to Las Vegas to gamble, dumping him off with anyone who would take him. They might win a few thousand dollars on some trips, but they invariably lost their winnings and then some. The father had told the son, not long before his suicide attempt, “I wish I’d never set eyes on you!” The boy had told his grandmother, “Nobody loves me.” He had also told her, “I want somebody to take me to church.” When she offered, he said, “I want my daddy to come and sit beside me.” This dear elderly woman lamented that he grandson’s parents never showed Matthew love and affection. In the wake of that, a young man with most of life before him, could not bear the thought of continuing one more day in such a topsy, turvy, loveless circumstance.

I felt a flood of emotions: Pity, for the boy; Anger, for the parents; Sympathy, for the grandmother. Upon reflection, there are several lessons to be learned from Matthew’s plight.

  • Bad decisions often carry awful consequences. Matthew learned this by the single squeeze of a trigger. If the parents weren’t past feeling, they might see the connection between their selfishness and his anguish. Galatians 6:7-8.
  • Sin destroys a proper sense of priorities. The parents were, in the grandmother’s estimation, greedy and selfish. They put themselves above their responsibility to their son. They made it clear they loved money (cf. 1 Tim. 6:10), and they made it clear they did not love their own boy (cf. Eph. 6:4).
  • Homes without love crumble. “The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand” (Prov. 12:7; cf. 14:11). How our homes need to be filled with love! Without it, how many children will feel like Matthew did?
  • Parents have a vital role to play in the spiritual development of their children. What did Matthew want? His daddy seated next to him “in church.” Was that too much to ask? He was hungry for spiritual guidance from his parents. What a challenge! How are we preparing our children in spiritual matters?

There are too many young Matthews, empty inside, unsupported, unloved, and unaided. What condition is our home in? Is sin in the way? We should be careful how we walk in front of our children (cf. Eph. 5:15). We want them to do more than value their physical life. We want them to pursue and gain eternal life! May God bless us in that needed pursuit.

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