Moms see the miracle in the mundane

One of my favorite happenings in the Gospels is when Jesus, after he's risen from the dead, appears to Mary Magdalene. I love that Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener. There is something so profound about a weeping, confused woman coming face-to-face with all she wants and not recognizing it, not realizing that the Jesus she is crying for, the Jesus she aches to see, is standing right in front of her, speaking to her, looking like a common laborer. Looking like just another person. Looking like an image she doesn't expect him to look like, speaking to her in a voice she doesn't expect him to speak with. But there he is, all the same. Jesus, reaching out and loving her. Jesus. A gardener.

I think this still happens today. Each person is made in the image of Christ, and Christ has as many appearances as there are people in the world. How many times do we really live this, though, believe that we are encountering the true, living Jesus in each person we meet, and in ourselves? We are the way Jesus chooses to make himself known now. We are Jesus' Body, not metaphorically, but in the most literal and physical way. Not just some of us, the most "worthy" or "holy." All of us. Every last one.

Dorothy Day wrote, "What a simplification of life it would be if we forced ourselves to see that everywhere we go is Christ, wearing out socks we have to darn, eating the food we have to cook, laughing with us, silent with us, sleeping with us ..." I love the thought that we live in Christ, that it is actually Christ in the image of the people around us, causing the need for us to do the chores that never seem to end, the chores that aren't glamorous and often go unappreciated. These chores that make us groan seem to take on a whole new joy when we give the people we're serving the dignity of Jesus.

Moms are especially good at this, at serving and loving in unnoticed, repetitive, never-ending ways and seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. Moms are good at seeing the holy in the profane, the beauty in the mess, the miracle in the mundane. Moms darn socks as if their son Jesus is the rowdiest, holiest sock-wearing boy they've ever had the good fortune of meeting. Moms cook food for their little images of Jesus, even when they wish Jesus would let food stay in the house for at least a day after grocery shopping. It's so good to have this Mother's Day to serve Jesus in our moms, since moms serve Jesus in their family members everyday.

Let's open ourselves to Jesus and all the images he appears to us through, in every person in this world, including ourselves. Let's stop wondering where Jesus has gone and when he's going to show up again and simplify things for ourselves, realizing that he is right in front of us in the most literal and real sense, as every person we encounter. Let's look at gardeners and see Jesus.

Mia Pohlman is a Perryville, Mo., native studying at Truman State University. She loves performing, God and the color purple -- not necessarily in that order.