Daily Thought for Sunday 30th March 2025
“… that which has been lost is now found …”
Luke 15:24
A well-known story, but what strikes me on this “Mothering Sunday” is that there are no women mentioned in this story at all! How different might the outcome have been if a mother had been there?
We are not told why the younger son wanted to leave the family business, but you can maybe guess it was something to do with family conflict. Would it even have happened if Mum had been there to listen to her son, to lend a sympathetic ear to his grievance and also to suggest a path to resolution?
When the son comes to his senses and returns home, would she have been more aware of a sense of unfairness that her older son was feeling? Would she have heard his frustration at how he had been treated? But also help him to see where his Dad was coming from? Would she have been able to have had a quiet word with her husband to point out the sensitivities around the family dynamics going on, suggesting a way to keep the family together?
Maybe not the point of the parable that Jesus was trying to tell us, but a good reminder on Mother’s Day of how important mothers can be to keep families together.
Let’s give thanks today for mothers and “significant others’ who are there for us when we are lost and need some direction.
Shall we pray?:
Parent God, we thank you this day for mothers: for what they have meant to us, for what they mean, and what they will continue to mean for as long as we remain thankful for all that they are and all that they give. Amen.
Dr Fiona Burnett is Convener of the Presbytery of Lothian & Borders Mission Committee.