Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday May 7, 2009

Since the publication of my book, "Lasting Friendships In 30 Days" I have talked with at least fifty men and women on the subject of realizing total reconciliation with their mother. This is a result of their having read the introduction of the book which deals with my mother and I reconciling after a tragedy in our family.

Robert Service wrote a poem titled "My Madonna." Service tells a tale that appears to be celebrating a fraud, but the underlying message is one that every person who struggles in relationship with their mother can and should learn from.

My Madonna

I hailed me a woman from the street,
Shameless, but oh, so fair!
I bade her to sit in the model’s seat
And I painted her sitting there.

I hid all trace of her heart unclean;
I painted a babe at her breast;
I painted her as she might have been
If the Worst had been the Best.

She laughed at my picture and went away
Then came with a knowing nod,
A connoisseur, and I heard him say;
"Tis Mary, the Mother of God."

So I painted a halo round her hair,
And I sold her and took my fee,
And she hangs in the church of Saint Hilaire, Where you and all may see.

It is not a wise or spiritual man or woman who is going around painting their mother with the Cromwellian idea, "warts and all" but rather applying the grace of God to her, and as Service suggested, "painting a halo around her hair." I love that phrase.

If you read Proverbs 31 this Mother's Day, keep in mind Solomon is writing about his mother, Bathsheba. Notice that he paints a halo round her hair and portrays her as the woman she became. He wrote in Proverbs 23:22:

"Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2009 Use with credit

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