“M” is for the million things she gave me;
“O” means only she is growing old;
“T” is for the tears she shed to save me;
“H” is for her heart as pure as gold;
“E” is for her eyes, with love-light shining;
“R” means right, and right she’ll always be;

Put them all together they spell, “MOTHER”;
A word that means the world to me.[1]

Giving, growing, shedding, holding, loving, correcting;

These are words of action that describe just a few of the attributes of a person who has given their life so that another may live. It just so happens that they are also, often, synonymous with the word “Mother.” This is a day that we celebrate Mothers; giving God our thanks for the habitat of the home for which He has helped them to construct. This is where mothers mean the world to us. As the saying goes, “The home is where the heart is.”[2] It is a place where we are to experience what it means to give and to grow; to shed tears and to hold; to love, and yes, to be corrected. Such comfort and such counsel go hand in hand; but it must be frustrating for the mother, when a child becomes distant and there is a feeling of being powerless. Unable to give comfort or counsel makes a mother grow weary. When a child goes beyond their reach, what then, can the mother do?

There is a true story about a young boy, who did indeed go beyond his mother’s reach. His name was Marvin Goldstein and he lived with his mother, Blanche, on the fifth story of a New York apartment building in the year 1945. Living five stories up, he recounts what it must have been like for his mother, during an incident when he was a toddler. He was playing in the sanctuary of their home. His mother was doing something in the next room, when all of a sudden she heard her son scream. She ran into the room right away, looking at the most dreadful sight. Her little boy was holding on to the window sill from the outside. This was in the days when they didn’t have window guards. She ran as fast as she could to save him, but she was too late. She watched him helplessly slip free, and heard his cry sounding more distant with the fall. She said the quickest prayer ever, out loud, “God save him.” And God did just that. He did it through a man named Sal Mauriello. Sal was a barber and had left early to go home that day. He was directly under the toddler who fell out the window. He watched when the boy let go, and falling down, directly towards him. Some say it was the perfect catch. He had the good presence of mind to take the coat that was tossed over his shoulder, and made it into something like a safety net. When he caught Marvin, the miracle was that the boy only fractured his nose. Rushing down as fast as she could, Blanche took hold of her son, inspecting him from head to toe. Then she wrapped her arms around Sal and kissed him.[3] From that point on, Marvin was known as, “Blanche’s son who fell out the window.” But together, both Blanche and Marvin would refer to the word, “Sal”, as the word that meant the world to them.

So what is it? What word is it that truly means the world to us as Christians? That gives us comfort and counsel? That reminds us of our true home where the heart is. Could it be the name of the one who told us He is, “the way, the truth, and the life?”

“C” is for that He caught me;
“H” means only, He wants to hold;
“R” is for His rising up to save me;
“I” is for His infinite love as pure as gold;
“S” is for His saving grace, with love-light shining;
“T” means truth, and true He’ll always be;

Put them all together they spell, “Christ”;
A word that means the world to us.[4]

The hardest thing for a mother, must be letting go. But what comfort and counsel she has to offer, when she prays to God on behalf of her child, knowing full well, Jesus is there to catch them when they fall. On this day, for those of us who have slipped out the window, and Mother’s alike who had to watch, Christ means the world to us, because He told us, He is the way, the truth and the life, and he is there to catch the world;[5] The world that means everything to Him.

[1] Howard Johnson, 1887-1941, song lyricist.
[2] Pliny the Elder, 24-79AD.
[3] NPR, “A Toddler, an Open Window, and an Amazing Catch,” April 24, 2009.
[4] The Rev. Jon Roberts, 2009.
[5] John 14:1-14