She was Johnny-on-the-spot with an egg casserole and a knee scooter. We’d been home less than 24 hours from a spring break that ended with an Achilles rupture. In true servant fashion, she was at it again.
A week after my repair surgery, Cindy fed us again: chicken cacciatore with the tastiest onions and mushrooms. But as much as I was grateful for family meals, I was also ashamed.
Because two years ago, Cindy broke her ankle. She was laid up for a couple months too. And I never once so much as brought her a plate of cookies.
I had no clue what she was going through. After all the nourishing food she prepared for me, I felt a pang, as if I was using her.
As if she was letting herself be used, pouring herself out.
As if she was serving me.
Servants Serve
She was.
Because servants serve. Servants of Christ serve Christ. And servants of Christ serve Christ’s people.
“For whatever you have done unto the least of these brothers of mine, you have done unto me” (Matthew 25:40). In his heavenly vision, John sees saints before the throne of God, serving him “day and night in his temple” (Revelation 7:15). Into eternity, the redeemed children of God serve him.
It’s the serving others part here that trips some of us up.
In this powerful message, Chris Brown describes the time he was to keynote after a formal dinner. Like most of the men at the event, he was dressed in a white shirt and black suit. Chris grew thirsty before the meal. The waitstaff was sparse, so he walked to the back table to fetch a pitcher of water.
On the way back, a pitcher in hand, a man waved at another table waved him over. Thinking that he was recognized as the famous speaker he detoured over with a smile.
Then, assuming him to be a waiter, the man asked,
“Sir, would you please grab us some water, too?”
Your imagination can take it from there.
When I heard the story, I was reminded of the time a fresh new teacher at school asked me to run copies for her. I bristled. That task, she should know, was a job for a teacher’s aide, not the work of an SLP with a master’s degree.
I ran the copies. With a smile, I think. But my bristling got me thinking. (I wrote about it here, how serving is not a dirty word.)
A Servant’s Heart
I like the answer Lorne Sanny, former president of the Navigators, gave when a man asked him how he could know if he had a servant attitude.
Sanny replied, “By how you act when you are treated like one.”
So I’ll ask you: When someone treats you like a servant, do you get offended and think, “That is beneath me. I deserve better?”
How do you react when you are treated like a servant?
Or do you think like a mother instead?
Do you say to yourself, “God made me for this. To serve is my delight.” Which probably means you are “used.”
Because that’s the nature of service. Service is what servants do.
And service is what mothers do.
A Mother in Burlington
Cindy is a mother in Burlington, if ever there was one. She didn’t marry until age 50 and has never given birth. But I know no one who embodies motherhood better than she does. Her cheerful, tender-hearted, nurturing servanthood is breathtaking.
Deborah, Israel’s appointed-by-God, female judge, described herself as “a mother in Israel” (Judges 5:7). Whatever else it meant, mother implies nurture and protection, strength and compassion. We don’t know if she had children “of her own.” But we know she gladly served God’s people.
Deborah could have used the names of prophetess, judge, or leader, but she chooses the dear and holy name of mother. How much is conveyed in that [name]! a mother in her sympathies with the sufferings of her people… a mother in her energies, a mother in her rapture at their deliverance.”
H. Hastings Weld, “The Song of Deborah”
That is what mothers do—they share in their children’s sufferings, they devote energy to their children’s help, they delight in their children’s deliverance.
That is what Cindy does.
Who Offered Themselves Willingly
For the record, I have a wonderful mother. And Cindy is spiritual mother, a mother “who offers herself up willingly.”
Right after she called herself a “mother in Israel,” Deborah used that phrase to praise Israel’s leaders, “who offered themselves willingly among the people” (Judges 5:9).
Biological mothers, save for a sad few, naturally pour out their lives for their children. From God’s “knitting in the womb” till death do them part, mothers offer themselves willingly for their children. Serving one’s children is self-serving, even as “he who loves his wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:28). So also, she who loves her children loves herself.
But here again, we go higher, to a less natural love, and a more supernatural one.
Deborah had Lappidoth, Cindy has Mike. Mike had grown daughters when he married Cindy. Cindy loves Mike’s daughters and their children and her nieces and nephews well. Their photos on canvas cover a prominent wall. Cindy serves these men and women, boys and girls with herself. She and Mike host nephew and niece parties and take grandchildren out for lunch.
Who Serve With Gladness
Last week Cindy was at the bedside day after day after day with a fading saint from our church. She was with Nancy hours before God called her home. She was loving and serving Nancy and her family—pouring herself out.
Cindy was bedside like a mother. By that I mean, Cindy was serving with gladness, as God desires: “Serve the Lord with gladness!” (Psalm 100:2). And take note, “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart…therefore you shall serve your enemies…” (Deut 28:47). And “the Lord loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).
Mothers serve with gladness.
Cindy serves with gladness. As if it were a privilege to speak tenderly day after day, to a frail silent one. As if sharing egg bakes en masse, and giving bouquets after Bible study and nourishing family after family at her dinner table was sheer delight. And as if she really believes it is more blessed to give than to receive.
The more I know Cindy, the more I believe that too. Which happens to be another thing mothers do: they influence. They lead through cheerful giving.
In our little church, Cindy is a mother. She offers herself willingly. Cindy delights to serve.
And that is what mothers do—all mothers who take after their everlasting Father.
“The greatest among you will be your servant.”
– Matthew 23:11
