A metaphor for motherhood:

How is this like motherhood? Well if you are asking, you probably haven't birthed any offspring.

As I watched this thin man stack these bricks on his head, I thought how every single muscle in his body must have to work to support this load. As mothers, I would say we use all of our muscles every day bending to tie shoes, lifting a wee one who's scraped her knee, stretching to reach that sippy cup lid that blew beneath the dishwasher rack, and twisting around to see if our rear ends look ok in those sweatpants. Could it be that we use our smiling muscles the very least?

There is the man, first stacking the bricks one by one. Yet when the load grows taller than his hands can reach he begins to TOSS THEM onto the top with great skill. I think of how many "bricks" mother carry every day, stacking them on top of ourselves every morning. How willing we are to take on the load. Could Jesus take these burdens and lighten our loads? How unwilling we are to give them to Him.

The man's friend keeps handing him the bricks...and probably would keep doing so until the load toppled over. Isn't that like the world? It will push us to the very limit if we let it. We can make the choice to stop...stop our bad habits, stop our overcomitting, stop our selfishness, etc. God is the One who makes it possible to say NO.

Once the man decides he's at his limit and can take no more, he turns and walks across a plank. As if the mere act of stacking the bricks wasn't incredible enough, he now carries them over the flimsiest of boards!! Ah, just like a mother. We take all that we can in a day, but still have just a little more energy to soothe the child who's had a bad dream at night, or woken up with a sore throat at 3am. I know that only Jesus could possibly give us the strength to always give a little bit more than we thought we had in us...to finish the race we've begun.

"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:30