By Ralphine Major

I do not remember the picture, but I can clearly see who is in it.  Our mother is standing outside her father’s house.  I am standing beside her in my matching dress, a brown and yellow floral print.  Our dresses were made by my Aunt Katherine Ward, our father’s sister.  Only my brother’s profile can be seen as he was not a fan of the camera that day and nearly out of camera range.

I can tell it was not an ordinary Sunday at our grandfather’s home.  It was Mother’s Day!  Though our culture has changed somewhat today, the tradition of wearing a flower or corsage was common in the sixties.  Our mother was wearing a white rose to honor the memory of her mother, Mandy Katherine Smith Torbett, whom she lost when only eight years old.  I was wearing a red rosebud in honor of our mother.

There is no shortage of scriptures in the Bible telling about mothers while giving us inspiration and hope.  I think of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who nurtured him as a child only to watch him die a cruel death on the cross but rise again to save a lost world (John 19:25-27); I think of the mother of Moses who saved  his life by putting him in a basket in the river (Exodus 2:1-10); and I think about Sarah who did not become a mother until well past child-bearing age and then gave birth to Isaac (Genesis 21).  As families across America celebrate Mother’s Day 2019 with beautiful flowers and special greeting cards, I wish Focus readers a blessed day with their loved ones filled with memory-making moments.  To all mothers, “Happy Mother’s Day!”  “Her children arise up, and call her blessed; . . . .  (Proverbs 31:28 KJV).