Great Moms Who Made A Difference: Rufus’s Mother

Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.

Romans 16:13

You may be surprised to learn that some pastors have mixed feelings about celebrating Mother’s Day. The reason: many women sitting in the pews long to be mothers but aren’t—those who are single and celibate, those who struggle with infertility, or those who have suffered a miscarriage or lost a child—and for them the day is painful.

But every woman can be a mother to someone. The apostle Paul had an “adopted mother” whom he greeted in Romans 16:13. “Greet Rufus for me,” he wrote, “and also his dear mother who has been such a mother to me” (TLB).

American Greetings, the card company, has a Mother’s Day card that says, “Because you’re like a mother to me, I’m thinking of you on Mother’s Day. Whenever I need advice, you’re always there with an open mind and an understanding heart. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

According to Isaiah 66:13, even the Lord longs to be like a mother to us.

Perhaps you’re more of a mother than you realize. Or perhaps there’s more than one “mother” whom you need to appreciate this year on Mother’s Day.

“Like as a mother comforteth”

O words of gentle worth!

“So I will comfort you,” declares

The Lord of all the earth.

WILLIAM RUNYAN