Father.  Mother.  These two words in the world identify those who contributed to your being born.  Though when praying to God, I call him Father…also a main character in my creation.  Then Mother.  As a Catholic, I’ve always been taught that Mary is the Universal Mother, though not involved in my creation before birth, but a role model of perfect faith for my creation here on earth.

No one is born without a Mother and a Father, although our experiences with those two individuals can look quite different.  Despite the status of those human relationships, scripture reminds us there is still hope.

This piece of scripture from 1John 3:1-3 is a reminder of the love my heavenly Father and Mother have for me.  It says to me that what you have in the world, no matter your relationship with your parents, you are not unloved, forgotten or unwanted.

This is huge!

I used to facilitate a parenting program where I’d spend nine weeks with a group of parents.  We’d discuss child development from newborn to toddler to school age, and into middle school.   Some of the other topics included anger management, conflict resolution and discipline.

Since we spent so much time together, the parents often felt comfortable opening up and sharing personal experiences.  They’d talk about how they were raised and what their parents let them get away with or what would happen if they did something wrong.

Some of the parents were raised in two parent homes but many of them were raised by only one parent or neither parent.  They’d say that they didn’t like when their parent would do this or do that and vow they weren’t going to do the same thing with their child.

It was interesting for me to watch the parents grow in awareness that their parents had raised them the best they could with the resources they had.  Now that they were parents themselves, they understood better how difficult parenting can be.  I’d say it’s the only job you get for life and you don’t even have to interview for it.

Human parents are not perfect.  They won’t love the way you need them to love 100% of the time.  They will let you down, disappoint and maybe even embarrass.  Every child of every human parent can point to a time when they didn’t feel loved or accepted or noticed by their parent.

This is untrue for our heavenly parents.  God, the Father is the beginning and the end.  He is with you in every breath you breathe.  And Mary, our Mother, walked every step on the road with Jesus to his death.  She does the same for you, never losing sight of you, through the good times and the bad.

Regardless if you know your human parents or not, have a great relationship with them or not, they are your parents.  They are the vessels from which brought you into this world.  They are the first teachers you had to teach you about love and trust.  For without them, you would not exist to experience all life has to offer.

Give thanks to your human parents.  For we are all God’s children, doing the best we can with the resources we have including God’s love and Mary’s example.