Mothers give us love and life. That love in return is the best we can give.
A mother’s love can be seen 80 million years ago. In 1923, a dinosaur fossil was found laying over a neat circle of 15 eggs. The fossil was given the name Oviraptor (egg thief), interpreted as caught in the act of pilfering the nest of another. Better understanding of little ones in the eggs revealed that it was the mother spread over her own eggs. She was exonerated, but the name stuck. What we see is motherhood and love caught in the act. She was protectively spread across her eggs while an entombing doom turned her to stone, forever guarding her babes to the last.
She was a good mother; all her eggs neatly nestled standing on their pointy ends, leaning into the slope of the nest in a close circle. Like birds today she had been caring for her young by turning them, playing with them, peeping to them, and anticipating the moment they would peep back from within, like feeling a baby kick.
Today crocodile mothers guard their eggs, carry their hatchlings in their mouths to the water, paddle around with them on their backs, and if a little one is grabbed and squawking, the mother charges right over.
There are birds that lay their nest of eggs right next to crocodile nests and the two mothers cooperate. The large lizards that eat eggs are too big for the mother bird to drive away, but the ruckus of her defense alerts the mother crocodile, sending the lizard fleeing as soon as she returns.
We stand humbled before the labor of constant care we see from mothers large and small. Mother’s love wraps the whole world in affection, hope, and protection, forging the unbroken chain of life.
Happy Mother’s Day!
