Mother's Day Thoughts on a Crabapple Tree

[Yet another post from the Soggy folder. I began this for Mother's Day last year. The flowering tree part doesn't fit so well this year, as the crabapple trees in my neighborhood have yet to bloom. Oh, well.]

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

-Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay"

Over the past few days, the pink flowering trees have abandoned their blossoms, and I am sad, because this means that the white-flowered ones will soon be divested of their beauty as well.

Every year, I wish that they would bloom longer. But that wish is synonymous with wishing that every sweet baby remain a baby, or that the sunrise would never turn to day. These trees, to fulfill their purpose in the ecosystem, must be not only lovely, but also fruitful.

As I've bemoaned the snow-like carpets circled beneath these trees, I've caught myself personifying the trees. (I'm a little prone to this.) I've wondered: is it a sacrifice for the tree to leave her ethereal garment on the ground in a thousand fragments? I doubt that, unless she has stooped to believe that her only value is in the show-stopping beauty people like me admire.

If she were to listen to my complaints, she would fail to delight in the harvest ahead. A few months from now, my windows will overflow with the sounds of birds chattering to each other as they gorge themselves on the crabapples, satisfied and delighted. These trees will feed a veritable flock, and subsequently, the propagation of further crabapple trees will be accomplished.

There will be beauty in that season, too, but I'm certain there will be fewer passersby stopping to ooh and ahh.

As I've thought about this, I've thought about the many amazing mothers I know. Motherhood -a season all about fruitfulness- is not often a show-stopping garment. Many moms have chosen to trade in aspects of their lives and appearances which were those most praised by others in order to invest in the lives of their children. In a culture which every day tells women that their value lies in their ability to maintain and perfect their visible beauty, the difficult, invisible work -and especially, the physical sacrifice- of motherhood is rarely appreciated.

To every mom who reads this, then, let me say: there is so much beauty in your season of today, whether it is seen by the world or not. As you love and labor, trusting God for your children and your role in their lives, may your "adorning be the the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." (1 Peter 3:4)

And may the outward losses and changes of this season bring about an inner awareness of eternity, that the things you do invest yourself in may result in deeper hope in God, both in you and in your children. "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wearing away [and motherhood is just one of many things which makes that truth abundantly clear], our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Happy Mother's Day!