The Mother's Story
Fourth Sunday of Lent March 21, 2004 The Mother’s Story by Cheryl Fitch
I’m the mother of the prodigal son that Jesus talked about. Oh I know you have never heard from me before, you won’t read my story in the bible because in those days the mother just was not important. It did not matter that I carried him in my body for nine long months, It didn’t matter that he was nourished for the first year of his life from my body. No, none of that matters when they get older. As soon as they are twelve, it is as if they never had a mother. Oh listen to me I sound like a bitter old woman and really I am not. I have had a good life and Jacob has been a wonderful husband. Jacob has always been very understanding of my feelings and he would even ask opinion at times. But I am getting away from the story. God blessed me with two beautiful boys. They both were healthy and so good looking. Right from the start I knew they would have no trouble getting good wives. That may not be important to their father but believe me it means a lot to a mother. After all it will be my kitchen that their wives will share with me and the last thing a mother needs is a lazy daughter in law. But these two boys were as different as day and night. Simeon was the fair haired one and he always tried hard to please. He worked hard and took pride in everything he did. As soon as he was old enough he was in the fields beside his father. He wanted to learn everything there was to learn about the land and the cattle. Isaac well he was different. He did not care to work in the fields. Jacob said he was a mommy’s boy and that I had spoiled him. I didn’t really, but Isaac had a dreamy look in his eyes and dreamed of travelling. He said he just wanted to leave this place. I kept telling him that he needed to quit dreaming and think about his future and settling down but that was not to be. I will never forget when he came to me and told me he was going to ask his father for his share of the inheritance so he could travel. I told him to stop talking nonsense but he said that he would never be happy here, farming the land and that this way of life was killing him. He said that each day he felt like he was dying a little more and that he had to get out. He begged me to talk to Jacob and to get his father to set him free. So that night I told Jacob what Isaac wanted. It broke my heart to help him but you have to understand it was also breaking my heart to see Isaac so unhappy. At first Jacob wouldn’t hear of it but about a week later he told us at the dinner table that he had sold some property and some of the cattle. He handed Isaac a bag with coin in it and told him that was a third of all we had. He wished him luck and left the house. Simeon was livid. He could not believe that his brother was taking his inheritance and leaving. I had never seen him so upset. The next morning when Isaac left it broke my heart. I told him that if he ever needed us to come back but he said he would not be back and left. I watched him until he was out of sight He never looked back. For days I could not stop crying. I prayed and prayed for God to send him back to me. I eventually realized that was not going to happen and then I just prayed for God to give me the strength to get through each day. We never spoke about how much it hurt to have Isaac gone but we all felt it. Simeon tried so hard to help fill the void in me that was left when Isaac was gone . He is such a good son but a mother loves each child differently and Isaac was my baby. Jacob was good to me too, he held me each night as I cried myself to sleep and though he never let on I know he cried his tears in the dark with me. The hardest part though was when the neighbours would talk and say mean things. They said we were better off without Isaac and that he never would have amounted to anything. I guess they just assumed that we felt the same way. There were so many times that I bit my tongue, there were times that I thought I would go mad keeping my mouth shout but I managed. As time passed it got easier but it still hurt. Simeon worked so hard in the absence of Isaac, not that Isaac had ever been a hard worker but at least it was another pair of hands. At first Simeon resented the extra work, but soon he began to enjoy carrying the whole responsibility for their farm. And he ran it well. In no time, it seemed, he was able to buy back the land they'd sold to send Isaac away –– that, and more. Within three years we were even better off than we had been before Isaac left. Simeon married a girl whose family we knew well and very quickly she became the daughter I never had and they had two beautiful children. I know I should have been happy but still there was a big hole torn from my heart. I knew I would never see Isaac again and I mourned for what was lost. Then one day one of the servants came and said something quietly to Jacob. Jacob ran outside. Something nudged me to follow and there coming down the lane was Isaac. He looked haggard and hungry. It seemed like he could hardly walk. Though he looked far older I knew it was him. A mother just knows her child’s walk even if it has been years. Oh how I wanted to run to him but I couldn’t move. I knew if I looked him in the eyes that I would collapse when Jacob turned him away. I just stood there tears running down my face. I am not sure I was even breathing. Then I heard Jacob yell something and I felt myself go down on my knees. O God O God I cried I can’t bear to be this close to him and not touch him, to not tell him how much I love him, how much I miss him. I could not believe my eyes when I felt someone touch me and Isaac was looking at me saying I am so sorry I will work as your servant if I can just come home. Jacob hugged us both and said no son You are our son and all is forgiven. Then Jacob ordered the servants to kill the fatted calf and to get clean clothes for Isaac. We are going to have a feast " for once, Isaac, you were dead and now you are alive" Jacob kept saying . Later Simeon came in and oh I have never seen such anger in his face as I did then. It was a side of Simeon I had never seen before and I hope I will never experience again. He was livid. He left and slammed the door behind him. Jacob went out and begged him to come and celebrate with us but he said that Isaac was a scoundrel and the only thing he would celebrate was Isaac’s leaving again. Jacob was torn. He was so relieved to have Isaac back but was hurt that Simeon did not feel the same. I went out to the field to talk to him and at first he would hear nothing of it. I explained to him how it felt to not have them both here. Then I asked him if he did not remember how God had continually fed our ancestors manna in the wilderness and how no matter what they had done to turn away from God that God continued to love them and take them back time after time. Always forgiving and turning the other cheek. Simeon said that he was not god and he could not forgive that way. He had resented Isaac for many years and had worked too hard to let him come and take part of it away again. I had almost given up and then I asked him what he would do if it was his child. Would he be able to forgive little Jacob if he left? Would he be able to stop loving little Jacob if he did leave? Could he just act like he was dead to him? Could he turn his back on him if he made some wrong choices in life? Could he be that cold and hard or would the ice in his heart melt when he looked into little Jacob’s eyes? If God as our parent could forgive again and again and again shouldn’t we be the same kind of parents? I turned around then and started back to the house. Then I heard a strange noise and when I looked back Simeon was running to me saying forgive me. I won’t say that it was easy for our family after that but at least we were all together. Isaac and Simeon began working together and began the long road to repairing their relationship. As for Jacob and I, well that night we held each other and both cried openly for we had both our sons back and some how we knew that with God’s example we would put our family back together. (Comments to Cheryl at acfitch@sympatio.ca.) Delhi United