M o th e r o f a M is s io n a ry
by M a r ilyn J . C h ic k
A s t h e time of our departure neared, the tears could not remain hidden any longer. I watched them flow down my mother’s cheeks. My heart ached. We had not spoken much about her heartache, and I had seldom seen her cry. At the moment I felt responsible for her sorrow; I caused her tears. As mother reared us children she taught us to love God, and to look upon service for Him as a blessed privilege. Now, as her love, care and devotion bore fruit, Mother cried — not tears of joy, but tears of anguish. As I watched the hot tears of pent-up emotion roll down her cheeks each one seemed to say, “Stay home, stay home,” and yet, though the pain in my head was great I could not answer, “I will.” God had called me and my husband to foreign missionary service, and we would soon be leav ing for four years in Brazil. There could be no turning back; our lives belonged to God. He had called us “to go.” My mind searched deeply for an answer. Why should such sorrow come to my mother? She had prayed long ago over a wee baby’s crib, and she had given the tiny child into the care and keeping of the Father in heaven. Why, now that God had called the child grown-up, and had chosen her to serve Him, should my mother find grief in her heart? Thoughts turned to the Scriptures and the story of Hannah, another mother who gave a son unto the Lord. In I Samuel 1:27 and 28, we find the story. “For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord; . . . ” These words give meaning to what Mother was called upon to do with me; she is lending her child to the Lord. Another mother of Scripture times was called upon to “lend” her child to the Father. She was Mary, the mother of Jesus. Did the hearts of Hannah and Mary break when they saw their sons leave them to follow God’s will? A mother’s love is stronger than can be described in words. Mother love is greater than any human love and
yet, as we see how grieved a mother becomes when her child is called to be a foreign missionary, is not this mother love at times selfish? (God’s love cannot be com pared to human love, and yet if we were to try to compare the Holy love of God with this greatest of human loves how much greater it is revealed.) For God gave His ONLY Son to become the first “foreign” missionary. God, the Father, made this sacrifice two thousand years ago. The decision to serve the Lord in a foreign land does not solve all the problems connected with the undertaking. Perhaps the hardest of these problems is the good-bye time. Seeing the tears of mother, of father, of sister or brother, cannot help but make the new recruit’s heart wonder and ask, “Is it really necessary for ME to go?” If the Lord Jesus had refused to go as a foreign missionary because of the fear of hurting the Father, there would be no Gospel for us to tell. Had Samuel refused to help his mother keep her vow to the Lord, he would not have had the blessings that he did. If a missionary seeing the tears of loved ones decides that the sacrifice is too great and decides to remain at home, how could the peoples of other lands come to know Christ as their Saviour and Lord? Paul reminds us in Romans 10:14, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? . . .” Who will send the missionary? The mother should be the first to give the blessing and to rejoice, as did Hannah of old, but often this is not true, that instead of rejoicing she finds grief and loneliness in her heart. The answer to this problem can be found only as the mother, along with the missionary son or daughter, trusts the Lord. As she turns her eyes upon Jesus she will find the peace, the joy, the strength she needs to rejoice that He has seen her child and has chosen her child out of thousands of other children to be a chosen vessel of service for Him. This rare and well-favored mother will find as she dwells near the Lord that she, too, will rejoice that her child has found favor with God. All of the “Samuels” on the mission field could never have gone if a mother, though tom asunder by grief, had not lent her child to God when He called. The lend ing of her child must be made completely; it must be a gift with no selfish desires included. As the child and the mother live nearer the Lord, they become nearer to one another, for: “Distance makes the heart grow fonder,” The world would have us know. God’s word can make the distance smaller, If in the Lord we grow. In Christ we live and have our being; And so though miles apart
Mrs. Chick and her husband Kenneth, both graduates of Biola, are laboring for Christ in Brazil, South America. This month, when we think of our mothers, the Editors have felt that this article would be particularly stimulating and interesting.
We are the very closest neighbors When dwelling in God’s heart.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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