I must admit that I walked a very precarious pathway on Mother’s Day this year. As I sat down to prepare my sermon my thoughts kept running back to what I had been reading in the days prior to Mother’s Day. No matter how I prayed or which direction I studied my mind kept going back to the words of the wisest man ever to live, Solomon.
The Book of Proverbs is known as a book of wise saying or a book of wisdom. It was written or gathered together by none other than King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live.
1 Kings 4:30-32
30 And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.
31 For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about.
32 And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.
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Sounds like a wise man to me. So what did I preach about to honor our mother’s on their very special day? I compared all mother’s to critters.
Critter’s is just that Southeast Texas vernacular for almost any and all animals.
I preached and utilized the word’s of the wisest man ever to live and told our mothers that they have the tendencies of some of the critters that Solomon spoke of. And I must tell you that I survived the whole ordeal. A little shaky at first but the ground beneath me soon solidified after a while. Let me explain just a bit without preaching the whole message.
Solomon said in Proverbs 30:24-28
24 There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:
25 The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
26 The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;
27 The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands;
28 The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.
Each one of these critters have a unique ability that we can or should see in our mothers. The ant is small and wise. They prepare for the future while using what strength they have to make sure that the colony or home is taken care of. Mothers have that innate ability to know how to prepare for the things that are coming in our futures. they may work behind the scenes and never come across as giants in the land but we know they are working diligently on our behalf.
The conies are small Arabian mice that are feeble. They don’t have the ability to dig into the ground and burrow themselves deep. They don’t build their home in the earth below. So they simply look around and find the rocks and make their homes there. All mothers should know that the safest place to raise their children is in the rock and scripture does inform us that Christ is that Rock (1 Cor. 10:24). Momma’s always raise your children close to a place of safety and there is no place safer than the Rock of all Ages.
Then we see the locust that have no king yet they gather in bands. Most know that locust can be destructive but Solomon chose to see something that many didn’t. Locust have that ability to know that if we band together it is a wise thing. There is nothing more beautiful than to have a group of mother’s come together and began to pray. In one sense they can be destructive, because I believe hell trembles when mothers gather with a spirit of prayer without a particular leader but a with a particular need.
“Satan you should be afraid, very afraid, when there are mothers that come together as the locusts do with a hunger that drives them to their knees.”
The last critter that Solomon speaks about in these verses is probably my favorite, the spider. While I am not a fan of spiders I see something to take note of from the words of a wise man. Solomon understood that there is a tenacity within the spider that just won’t quit. How many times have we seen someone or something tear a spider web down and come back in just a bit and the web is re-spun. The tenacity of our mother’s is surely to be well spoken of. When their world or ours are torn apart what do they do, they simply re-build.
But I took notice of something else about the spider. The web that they spin comes from within. Literally they are giving everything of themselves from within. Mothers always give their all and when it becomes untangled or destroyed what do they do. They dig a little deeper and start over again. It’s almost as if they are willing to continue to give of themselves as long as there is a need. And when it is time, nothing can keep them from the king. They always find a way where there is no way even when they have given so much of themselves. Mom’s just have that way about them to act like critters sometimes.
Aren’t you glad that your mom can be compared to a critter. She is always looking out for you, always hiding you in the rock, always praying for you, and always giving and sacrificing everything that she can for you.
Call her or see her if you can and remind her how much you love her. Your mother can have the attributes of a wise and precious critter according to Solomon.
Until next week
Blessed Beyond Measure
Pastor John Denmon
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