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May 12, 2023
Dear Noblesville First Family,
This weekend our country will celebrate Mother’s Day. And Mother’s Day, like other national holidays, can be bring bittersweet feelings. It can be sweet if we experienced a loving and nurturing mother relationship or bitter if we struggled to receive that kind of love. Whatever your experience may be, one thing is clear: the mothering Spirit of God loves you. Human relationships can bless us and fail us but the divine mothering we find in God is always present, always encouraging and always loving.
I wrote this prayer on Mother’s Day a few years back and I hope it’s one that may bless you:
Father and Mother God, who is nurturing, loving, and protecting, we are grateful today for the gift of motherhood. And we lift up before you mothers of every kind: biological mothers who nurtured, cared, and sacrificed that we might know how deeply we were loved by them and you.
We lift up to you grandmothers: the mimis, memaws, nanas, gigis and granny’s who were cautious, strict and rule following with their own children but let all that fly out of the window when their grandchildren came into the world.
We lift up spiritual mothers, women who answer the call of motherhood not in body but in soul through their service and their teaching through their time.
Oh God we give you thanks for mothers whose example of love points to the love you have for each of us.
And while we thank you for all of the many women who have mothered us in different ways we also lift up to you those who are hurting, those who are grieving the loss of a mother’s presence in body or in example, those who desire to be a mother but who are not. Remind us today, oh God, that there is no hurt that you cannot heal and that your healing presence will always be with us in grief, in longing or even disappointment. Amen.
And speaking of mothering figures and relationships, it’s bittersweet to share that two of our own staff members who have nurtured and loved our congregation are now being called to share that love elsewhere. Bonnie Zickgraf has received an appointment to serve as the Pastor of Christland UMC in Marion, Ind. And Ally Hall is also transitioning from our Family Ministries team to a new role in ministry. We are grateful for both of these leaders and trust that God will continue to use them to nurture the church, faith and the next generation of disciples. We are blessed to have them serve alongside us through the end of June and look forward to celebrating their impact in our ministry with you.
Leaders like Bonnie and Ally embody the encouraging spirit of mothers which we will explore in our worship this Sunday. I’ll be preaching the next installment of our series, "Footsteps: Lessons from Following Jesus in the Holy Land." This week: Even God needed a mother. I hope you’ll bring the mothering figures in your life and join us at 8:30 or 9:45.
Have a Happy Mother’s Day and Keep the Faith@First,
Pastor Nicole