Mother

“Why are you crying, Hannah?” Elkanah would ask. “Why aren’t you eating? Why be downhearted just because you have no children? You have me—isn’t that better than having ten sons?” [1 Samuel 1.8]

As a man myself, I can see my own wife's point when sometimes she says, "You just don't get it..."

Here in the opening story of 1 Samuel, it is all too obvious that Elkanah just didn't get it.

While many women in modern society do not bear children, it was never God's design for them to do so. And, for that reason, having children is a very emotional thing. Likewise, having no children, unless she is deeply distracted by other things, is just as emotional for a normal woman.

This is not to say that a man does not have an emotional tie to fathering children, because he does. But God put something special into woman when He created her that made her uniquely, and irreplaceably, "Mother." In the case of Hannah, we see this longing to bear children played out in textbook fashion.

Another thought that crossed my mind today is that it seems to be somewhat of a pattern in the Bible that women who struggled to bear children almost always eventually mothered renown men of God. Wow.

Father, help me to understand, but if not, help me to at least usefully acknowledge the unique relationship of a mother for her children.