Daily Devotional for Tuesday, January 20

The Brokenhearted Mother

“Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her,” Luke 7:12.

In the culture of the first century, boys went to school until they were twelve or thirteen and then began an apprenticeship to learn a trade to make a living. Girls were educated in the home and helped raise siblings while they learned how to keep and run a household. Men were typically established in their trade before they married, but women were married in their teen years. This meant that many women were widows for a while toward the end of their life, and their children cared for them. In cases where there are no children, the women would usually become impoverished, which is why there are so many instructions in Scripture to take care of widows and orphans.

In verse 12, it is clear that people in the city of Nain respected this grieving woman and her family. Being a widow, many people probably helped care for her and her son and were heart-broken that she had been left alone. A great crowd of people surrounded the woman and carried the young man’s body out of the city to be buried. Most of the time, burials took place within a day, so this mother must have been distraught as she walked through town and out the gate. This sounds more like a poem as the two crowds collided: the crowd following Jesus, rejoicing in His recent miracles and all of God’s blessings, and the crowd following the widow, lamenting and grieving the loss of her son. What a beautiful picture of the road of life painted here in this divine appointment on the road at the city gate. Jesus is in the midst of it all as we rejoice and as we weep.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Whatever season of life you are in today, you are not alone. Jesus is our ever-present hope.

Ashley Ridings