“Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living” (Genesis 2:30). It was a special name for a special person.

Without her, the human race would have consisted of a grand total of one. She was essential to God’s perfect plan of creation.

God knew what he was doing when he made women the bearers of children. He bestowed a special blessing upon the human race when he established a role that set women apart from men.

A father cannot replace a mother, so matter how hard he tries—no matter how much modern thinking tries to blur the lines between the two.

Changes in technology may have changed the opportunities for women to have a productive life outside of the home. But they can never change the special place women have in the home.

A mother sees her children with more than her eyes. She watches with her heart.

Sometimes, that heart breaks with pain.

Some might say that Sisera was a person only his mother could love. We surely would not look upon him favorably, nor did the Israelites of his day.

Sisera was a Canaanite army commander. His 900 iron chariots struck terror into the hearts of God’s people. It was at a time marked by confusion and dismay. The refrain in the book of Judges is: “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). No wonder there was confusion and dismay.

It was left to a woman to be the military leader of Israel. Her name was Deborah. She and another woman by the name of Jael caused the pain in the heart of Sisera’s mother.

As thousands of mothers before her must have done, and thousands upon thousands of mothers have done since then, she was anxiously waiting for her son to return from war.

She waited in vain.

The writer of the book of Judges pictures the scene for us as she waited. She looks through the window—but does not see him. She waits to hear the clatter of his returning chariot—but does not hear it.

She never will.

Her son lies lifeless among the enemy. His army was being defeated. He ran for his life. He found a woman who offered to hide him in safety.

Then, she drove a peg through his temple while he was sleeping (Judges 4:17ff).

His mother must have felt the peg was driven through her heart.

The Lord God told rebellious Eve that one consequence of sin would be the pain of childbirth. It remains to this day.

The Lord God told faithful Mary that her son would be the Savior of the world. It was a message of joy that stands to this day.

There has never been a child that did not bring pain to its mother.

There is no person, except Jesus, who does not need to regret a mother’s pain.

There is no person, except Jesus, who does not need to request forgiveness for causing her pain.

There is no person, because of Jesus, the Son of a woman, who does not have those sins paid for.

That should fill any mother’s heart with joy.

Mother’s Day is a prime time to thank our God for mothers—especially our own.

Is it not?