By Dorrell Brown
Although I don’t do childish things anymore, my thoughts are sometimes childish, and my prayers can be, too. In my preparation for anything, prayer is usually done first, but like a child when it comes to some prayers, I’m at peace and might fall asleep, so this morning I’ll tell you a story instead.
There was an elderly lady who attended my childhood Baptist church. We all walked then, and no matter how early I left home, she was already in church singing the same lines over and over again to a children’s’ song I did not know then: “One door and only one, and yet its sides are two, inside and outside, on which side are you?” It made me wonder on which side I should be, and I would follow this lady if she went outside just to be on the same side of the door she was … but my mother noticed and wanted an explanation for my strange behavior. I had no choice but to believe my mother when she told me the lady was preparing, although I did not know for what. So l left it at that.
We sing today, Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth, and for that we are thankful. So let us all be engaged right now … it’s not difficult at all. Look around, name five things you can see and give thanks. Now four things you can hear, and also give thanks; three things you can feel — remember to be thankful for what you can feel — and two things you can smell — don’t forget to give thanks for that — and finally something you can taste, and again be thankful.
My earthly mother was correct after all. That elderly lady was preparing by praying through singing the repetitive lines mentioned above. And yes, I do know the rest of the song now. May our hearts be ready to receive and meditate on the word we will hear today, be appreciative and be thankful for our mothers or mother figures in our lives.