My Wife, A Mother Without Peer

Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children.

- William Makepeace Thackeray

Six years ago I witnessed you perform the most amazing feat I have ever beheld another human being accomplish. After nine months of lost sleep, heartburn, tired feet, exhaustion, an aching back and a body that changed on a daily basis, you brought into this world a remarkably beautiful baby girl. You performed this momentous accomplishment with no desire for recognition, no want of any accolades. I remember like it was yesterday. As you lay on that hospital bed, tears mingling with the sweat on your face, holding our newborn miracle, I asked you how in the world you had managed to pull it all off. You looked into my eyes and with a gentle shrug and a soft smile you murmured, "I am a mother. It's what I was meant to do."

Since that chilly November day, when I didn't think I could ever possibly be more in awe of you, you have consistently shown me that what I had observed was simply the beginning of an amazing journey.

You have taken the idea of motherhood and transformed it into a beautiful symphony before my very eyes. You have nurtured, guided, inspired, healed, taught, comforted, coached, counseled, lead. You have done these things and more, all without missing a beat.

Our daughter has a bright future ahead of her, restrained only by the limits of her very dreams. This is thanks in large part to the image of the strong yet humble woman of faith and devotion that she sees you live out day after day. 

As I sit here, I can close my eyes and see into that future. Our daughter, fully grown and in full possession of her mother's beauty, stands before a sea of people who are listening intently as she makes a speech at her college graduation. Her hazel eyes settle on yours as her lightly freckled cheeks break into a warm smile. She thanks you publicly for your example, for your indomitable devotion to the responsibilities of motherhood. A tear falls to her cheek as she acknowledges that she would not be where she is without you and the incredible example you have always modeled for her. As I sit here...I can see this moment. Lord willing, I know it will come.

There is a short story called The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. It is about an extremely poor young couple struggling to find ways to give each other the best, most amazing gift they can for Christmas. The wife takes her incredibly beautiful hair, which she adores, and sells it to obtain a platinum watch chain for her husband's pocket watch. The husband takes his most prized possession, a golden pocket watch, which had once belonged to his father and to his grandfather before him, and sells it to obtain money to purchase a set of tortoise shell combs she had been wanting for a long time. 

The moral of course is that material gifts pale in comparison to the things we do for each other that are born out of love. I love our daughter more than I ever thought it possible for one human being to love another. Were I granted by God the opportunity to grant her one gift, one chance to give her anything in this immense world of ours that I wished, I would fall on my knees and wish for nothing more than the gift that God has already bestowed upon her, the one he gave to her six years ago.

The gift of you, a mother without peer.

  

Happy Mother's Day, my love.