Thursday, February 23, 2006

A mother's love exemplified at Fazoli's.

I was reading a book Saturday morning that included the following story: A sergeant gives a piece of bread to a starving mother and she breaks it in two and gives it two her two children. "Hmpf!" says the sergeant, "she didn't keep any for herself."

"Because she's not hungry." said a soldier.

"No, because she's a mother," the sergeant said.

About that time, my brother asked me if I wanted to go to Fazoli's with him and his family. My sister-in-law, Sabrina, was particularly excited to go there because she loves their breadsticks. Anyhow, we get our food, but the breadstick lady doesn't make her rounds for quite some time. Sabrina is disappointed and even jokingly comments that she'll walk out if she doesn't get breadsticks soon. Finally, the breadsticks arrive. The breadstick lady gives two breadsticks each to me, Joey and Sabrina, but she doesn't give any to the kids. And so what does Sabrina do with those long-awaited breadsticks? She gives them to her two kids.

"Hmm. It's just like that story--albeit under different circumstances," I thought as I ate a breadstick (because an uncle's love definitely doesn't come close to matching a mother's love).

I kind of forgot about it until a few days later when I picked up the book again, and thought I should e-mail Sabrina and tell her that. So I did. And I got this reply:

"Wow, that is such a coincidence! It's so true though. Before kids I would have knocked down and fought anyone that got in the way of my Fazoli's breadsticks, but after kids, that's just what you do. Although it is kind of selfish in a round about way because I make sure they are taken care of and happy first; otherwise, I can't relax and feel happy."

Anyhow, I felt I gained a great insight to a mother's love? Can there exist any love greater than that of a mother for a child? Actually, yes.

As I thought about it, I was reminded of a scripture I wrote in "Christ's Valentine" (see below). The scripture comes from 1 Nephi 21:14-16:

“But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not.

“For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands."

And here's what I wrote in that Valentine about this verse: "Here, Christ tells us He loves us even more than our moms do! He remembers us always, for His love for us has been engraved on His palms through His loving sacrifice—the purpose of which was to help us realize our own happiness."

Just as Sabrina's first concern is her kids' happiness, Christ's first concern is also our happiness. But what makes Christ's love for us superior to a mother's love is this: He laid down his life and suffered all things for us, so that we could be happy: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). Not only did Christ prove his Greatest Love by sacrificing His life, He did something a mother cannot do: He took upon Himself all the sins, pains, sicknesses, and life's hurts that we all suffer and he experienced them Himself so that we could rid ourselves of those things that wound the soul. Not only that, His Sacrifice provided a way for the family to be eternal; that that love a mother has for her child will live on, and she will always be her child's mother.

While a mother's love is unmatched in all of human love, God's love is unmatched in all of the universe.