Being a mom is intense.

A labor and delivery nurse often reminds me how amazing the biological process of a woman’s pregnancy is. A mom’s heart literally gets bigger—the little guy needs a lot of love! During pregnancy, the woman’s expanded heart can begin pumping up to 50 percent more blood through her body. Her heart works harder with each beat, as if her body knew that there was a new life dependent upon its functioning well. All of this extra blood contributes to the growth and development of the baby.

The happenings within the motherly womb and the motherly heart are natural. These natural processes of a mother’s body manifest the wisdom of God. As the author of nature and cause of all things, the Creator guides even unconscious processes toward an intelligible end. The scientifically observable phenomenon of a pregnant woman’s expanding heart is a way—fitting, complicated, and precise—that God wills for moms to help little human beings to come into the world.

I am not alone in marveling at motherhood. The inspired Scriptures also point out the wonders that God does with mothers.

In 2 Maccabees 7, we meet a mother in a tough spot. She and her seven sons have been arrested and now face torture and martyrdom on account of their faithfulness to God. As she watches her sons’ grueling martyrdom, she bears it all with tremendous courage (vv. 20–21). Just as God once prepared this woman’s physical heart for the birth of her sons, much more does the Lord strengthen her with supernatural courage as she places all her hope in Him.

The bravery of this mother shows forth in her unwavering faith amid persecution. She has been led to an hour of great suffering precisely because she is a faithful mom. As each son goes before the executioner, she encourages him to keep faith in the merciful God and to die nobly (v. 21). Her words of reassurance are filled with a motherly instinct: “Accept death, so that in God’s mercy I may get you back again with your brothers” (v. 29). Enlightened by faith, she sees with a God’s-eye view: death is not the end of a mother’s love. Trusting in God, she longs to see her boys again in heaven. After she strengthens her sons, God strengthens her to endure her own martyrdom (v. 41).

Being a mom is intense!

God’s plan for every mother includes strengthening her heart: not just for non-voluntary actions like pumping blood, but—more heroically—for making acts of love and sacrifice. In His wisdom, God wills that mothers be vessels of His love and grace. For the mother in 2 Maccabees 7, her vocation to be a mother was not limited to carrying in the womb for nine months, nursing, and teaching table manners. God called her to raise her sons in the faith. God strengthened her to get them to heaven.

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Photo by Bryan Guilas (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)