Since my children were too young when Dallas Jenkins’ The Chosen first aired several years ago, my family has just recently started watching this television series based on the life of Christ and his followers. After watching an episode together one evening, I made the comment to my daughter, “So, I know it’s better that we have the Holy Spirit now, but man, does that show really just make you want to hug Jesus.” Throughout the series, Jesus is depicted warmly greeting his friends and his mother with hugs, consoling his disciples and those in grief with tenderness, and receiving embraces of gratitude from those whom he has healed. It’s hard not to become envious of those who have known the human touch of Our Lord in his time here on earth. My twelve-year-old daughter, without hesitation, replied, “Yes, but you know, because I have Jesus in me, whenever I hug you, it’s pretty much Jesus hugging you.” And she opened her arms for an embrace.
Indeed. In that moment I was reminded of a maxim I often hear as a mother, that God chooses not just anyone, but me specifically to be the mother of my children. And, in keeping with the natural order and relationship of parent to child, I typically understand it to mean that God uses my particular gifts and sacrifices so that I can serve them—protecting them, nurturing their growth, and providing for their needs. But in my daughter’s clear-sightedness that day, I could understand it in the inverse as well. That is, my particular children become vessels of God’s mercy for me, as well, if I am open to receive it. My daughter understands her identity in Christ, and she opened her arms as a sister in Christ that day.
But even if they lack such self-knowledge, I encourage you to see your children with new eyes today. While it may be easier to view them as the hungry, thirsty Jesus in need of food, clothing, and shelter, or as the least among us in need of forgiveness, comfort, and counsel, I challenge you today to see your children as bearers of the image of our merciful Lord, of the Jesus who reaches out a human hand and a human heart with an offering of love. While you may be their first teachers and their first image of God, they, too, bear the heart of Jesus for us to see and experience.
‘Blessed are the merciful,’ Jesus tells us, ‘for they shall receive mercy’ (Mt 5:7). In a Christian understanding, mercy is not a unilateral exchange. It’s not one way. What is more, the reception of mercy for the merciful is not a distant future event but one present in the very act of giving. John Paul II explains, “An act of merciful love is only really such when we are deeply convinced, at the moment that we perform it, that we are at the same time receiving mercy from the people who are accepting it from us.”
Yes, motherhood is an outpouring of self and mercy, but in it, we receive the mercy of Jesus, often when we least expect it; sometimes, in a middle schooler’s hug.
I believe that my children are very much an instrument of my salvation. When they are being an image of Christ to me and even when they are not.