I wonder what you are doing today for Mother’s Day?  My mother and grandmothers are all deceased.  So, for me it’s a day to pause and remember.  But, then as the generations move on, my wife and my daughter-in-law have now become the focus of attention in our family as our three children and our newly born grandson have much to give thanks for.

With these things in mind, I often wonder how Moses got on.  For he had two mothers!

Think about it.  Moses was born to a Levite woman.  She was one of thousands of Hebrews enslaved in Egypt under the rule of the Pharaohs.  In the book of Exodus we read that Pharaoh ordered all new born Hebrew boys be put to death.  But when Moses was born he was kept secret.  Then, when he was old enough, Moses was placed in a papyrus basket to be sheltered among the reeds on the River Nile.

Here we are told the baby Moses was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter who took compassion on the little one and raised the boy as her own.

I believe this story has a lot to say about motherhood.  It says families come in all shapes and sizes.  It is not uncommon to have a birth mother and to then have an attachment to one or more others who offer significant nurture and care.

But what’s really significant in this story of Moses is this.  Pharaoh’s daughter has “pity” or “compassion” on the little boy.

Pharaoh was a brutal, powerful person.  Yet his daughter defies her father by sparing the life of this little Hebrew child.  Moreover, Moses’ birth mother and the midwives who deliver him also defy the “powers that be” to guarantee this little vulnerable boy life.

In a world that can be so threatening, so uncaring and so brutal, mothers in all shapes and sizes nurture and care for children.  Whether it be the mother who is fleeing war in Syria, child in hand, or the mother who is coping with the stress and the strain of suburban Sydney with the demands of work, the urgent prerequisite for childcare and the desperate need for “time out”, mothers are important.  Mothers are special.

Mothers nurture and provide.  Mothers nourish and promote.  Thank you to all you mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers.  You are, indeed, an exceptional lot!