Happy Mother’s Day to the mothers who are ragged with sleep deprivation and are trying to cover up that spot of your spit-up or snot on your blouse.

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms who can’t be here this morning because a kid ran a fever in the middle of the night or interrupted your sleep with tears from a nightmare, and you couldn’t force yourself out of bed to scramble the kids to get to church in time.

Happy Mother’s Day to moms who are walking a delicate dance with adolescent kids hitting puberty and trying your best to stay out of the way of their hormones.

Happy Mothers Day to the ones who are praying your teens make good choices this afternoon as you hand off your car keys and cash.

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms who are raising children they didn’t give birth to. You are the heroes of this day. You are a mother by choice not nature, and we thank you for it.

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms who journey the difficult path of single parenting. May you never feel alone.

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms who silently miss the days of spit up, and getting kicked in the side while you try to sleep, and handing off the car keys with a prayer. You’ve closed one chapter in your life to said yes to the challenges of being a mother and friend to a fellow adult, but you still see the childish smirk in their eye.

Happy Mother’s Day to the moms of adult kids who struggle, because we can’t be there to wipe those tears in the middle of the night in the same way we could when they were three.

Happy Mother’s Day to those of us who grieve the mom we never had or the mom wished we had.

Happy Mother’s Day to those of us who are learning to navigate life without a cherished mother who has passed on to eternity, and we wish we could give her one more Mother’s Day hug and card and flower.

Happy Mother’s Day to the lonely, to the sad, to the joyful, and to the tired. For God has rained down His blessings on all of us. He showed us His love through an imperfect mother’s hands so that His glory could be made manifest.

He has never left us. He has always loved us. His love was expressed through a mother’s touch, and His heart extends for healing when we lack that mother’s touch. He’s the one who comforts us when we wake in a nightmare. He’s the one who loves us through our mistakes and successes. He’s the one who comforts the mother and the child alike. He is the one who makes us whole.