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But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

2 Kings 4:30

“Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?” (2 Kings 4:28), the Shunammite woman said. 

She did not ask for any favors when she hosted the prophet Elisha whenever he came by (10). It was just an act of hospitality.  When the man of God raised her hopes for a son, she protested (16). She became pregnant anyway, and her son became her delight.

“Why are the servants carrying my boy with such haste? What is wrong with him”, the Shunammite woman may have said. “And where is his father? Couldn’t he bring his own son home to seek treatment for him? What am I supposed to do?” With the boy lying helplessly on her lap, she rocked him till he died at noon (20).

“Where is the man of God,” she said.

In bitterness of heart, she mounted her donkey and went to Mount Carmel. “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hope’?”

Elisha sent Gehazi with his staff to go and raise the boy up. But the Shunammite would not have it. The power to raise the boy was not in the staff in Gehazi’s hands, It was in the hands of the man God had anointed. What could Elisha do, but to get up and follow her (30)?

That’s the heart of a mother. A heart that would not rest until her child is well and safe from all trouble. She cries when her baby cries. She groans when her child is sick. She is not warm until her child is warm and well fed. Until her baby has been comfortably tucked in and sound asleep, a mother would not sleep.

Observe the heart of a mother through Hagar with her dying son, Ishmael, in the wilderness of Beersheba. “I cannot watch the boy die … And as she sat there, she began to sob” (Gen. 21:16). Feel a mother’s heart when her child’s life is threatened in the case of the two prostitutes before King Solomon (1 Kings 3:16-27). “Please my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!” (26). Journey through the day with the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:10-31 and be captivated by the purity of a mother’s heart for her family. And finally, experience the pain a mother endures through the treasury of Mary’s heart (Lk. 2:19, 51). Come to grips with a mother’s heart when our Lord Jesus Christ stood trial before Pilate, when He carried His cross through the streets of Jerusalem, and on Golgotha, when they drove the nails through His hands. It is as pure as gold!

So, don’t wait till Mother’s Day to appreciate your mother or the mother of your children. Every day is a fitting day for appreciation. Love them and let them feel special.