Daily Devotions
I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice. 2 Timothy 1:5
When a three-year-old-boy from the Ukraine had received normal vision through a cornea transplant in the United States, his mother exclaimed, “My son was given a second life, and I with him.”
It is not a surprising statement since, under normal circumstances, the lives of parents are closely linked to those of their children. Whatever brings true joy and hope to children is of utmost delight to the parents also. The reverse is also true: Fathers and mothers suffer when evil befalls their offspring.
We find examples of mothers in the Bible who rejoiced over their sons – Hannah, for example, was happy to bring young Samuel to God’s house that he might learn to serve the Lord (1 Samuel 1:21-28). And those two widows whose sons were restored to life – the mother in Zaraphath with whom Elijah stayed (1 Kings 17:17-24) and the one in Nain whose son Jesus raised to life (Luke 7:11-17) – surely felt that they, too, had received a second life.
Perhaps the prime biblical example of a close union between mother and son is that of Eunice and Timothy. The apostle Paul tells Timothy that his sincere faith “first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice”. Later in his letter he declares that young Timothy had known the Holy Scriptures from infancy. Who had taught him? Not his father, for he was an unconverted Greek. Yes, the grandmother helped, but it was mostly Eunice. She began early to instruct him in what the Scriptures taught – that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, who died for our sins and rose again. In later years Saint Paul further taught Timothy, but the initial credit goes to Eunice, an otherwise unknown woman living in an area that is now Turkey.
It remains true: When anything good comes to children, mothers rejoice with them. It is as though both had received a second life.
PRAYER: Thank You, Lord God for the gift of my mother. Amen.
(Devotions from “With Jesus Every Day” copyright 1997, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)