The Rev Beverley Sproats, St John’s Church, Yeadon

I’VE just become an aunty again. Seeing photos of my newborn nephew, I marvel at the privilege that it is to create a miracle with God when we have a child. My little nephew has great timing too. He’s arrived just in time to give his mummy her first Mothering Sunday, also known as Mothers’ Day.

Mothering Sunday is a celebration of mums, and we’ll be doing just that at our Sunday service at 10.15am at St. John’s Church, Yeadon.

Everyone is welcome and all women who come along will be given a small posy of flowers. It’s a time to celebrate with family, giving thanks to God for mums.

But Mothering Sunday is not a happy day for everyone. Not everyone can have a child who wants one, and not everyone has a good relationship with their mother.

Where is God in all this? God wants to give us unconditional love. We may not have known it from our own mothers. Even if we did, it wouldn’t have been perfect. I know that I can be an imperfect mum sometimes, being impatient or grumpy with my children. God’s love, however, is perfect.

A friend of mine is fostering a child. I’ve seen the love they lavish on this child who is somehow their own, yet not their own. It reminds me of how God looks at us, adopting us into his family when we believe and trust in him.

God has such perfect, unconditional love for us that he sent his son, Jesus, to make a way for us to be adopted into his family. In John’s gospel we read ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life.’ As we approach Easter, we remember that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins and was raised to life again. Now we can have a relationship with God and be adopted into his family.

So, however you celebrate this Mothering Sunday, remember God’s love for us is like that of a mother for her child.

And I’m looking forward to my first cuddles with my new nephew!