Advent
December 21, 2015

Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod. His mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, ‘May the Lord repay you with children by this woman for the gift that she made to the Lord’; and then they would return to their home. –1 Samuel 2:18-20

I got my first store-bought dress when I was seven years old. My mother was an excellent seamstress, actually a tailor. She loved to sew, but the year I was in the second grade, when we baby boomers were flooding schools throughout this country, my hometown school was experiencing a teacher shortage and my Mom was a teacher. The school asked her to consider helping them out and she did that one year. The dress was my Easter dress and I guess the workload at the school and caring for a family took more time than she had to make dresses so my sister and I got matching dresses we bought already made. I thought that my dress was pretty hot stuff. The next store bought dress I had I bought myself when I was sixteen and working. Even though I enjoyed the experience of going to a store and getting a dress that first time, I learned quickly that the quality of the clothing purchased at a store didn’t come close to my mother’s personally tailored clothing. After I graduated from college and went to work, I actually paid her for several years to make my clothing.

Hannah, Samuel’s mother, was most likely a skilled seamstress like my mother. There is a lot in this scripture that is untold. Did they only see him once a year when they made a special trip to the temple as Jesus did when he was twelve? How did she know how much he had grown in a year? And surely, even if he wore the same robe every day he would, as a child, have outgrown it long before another year came along.

This account was written by an author who was probably more impressed by the love of a mother than he was concerned about the details of the action. This mother had been willing to give her son up to God but continued to nurture and care for him as a parent. Children need both, the nurture of loving parents and the care of a community of faith.

Prayer: Lord, bless all the little children that come unto you and bless their parents and the whole cloud of witnesses who take the time and make the effort to assure that they experience a sampling of your love through them. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.