Happy Mother’s Day! For the first time, I’m celebrating not just as a son, but as a new father.
On April 29th, my wife and I welcomed our daughter, Adeline Rose Bailey into the world. I still struggle to fully explain what that moment did to my heart. She’s so small, yet she carries the weight of heaven in her presence. Holding her in my arms, I was overwhelmed by how fiercely I already love her and just how much I deeply admire the woman who brought her into the world.
Watching my wife become a mother has changed the way I understand strength, grace, and love. The way she nurtures, comforts, and sacrifices already speaks volumes to the kind of mother she is becoming. She’s calm when I am unsure (which is more often than not), steady when I feel shaken (again, often), and full of a love that is truly powerful.
As I celebrate her, I can’t help but also reflect on my own mother, the first voice I followed, the first hands that held me, the first person who showed me what faithful love really looks like. Her example shaped who I am and now I get to watch that same legacy of love take root in our daughter.
Today’s Gospel reading (John 10:27–30) reminds us of something sacred:
“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me… No one can take them out of my hand.”
As I reflected on this Gospel, I hear echoes of a mother’s love in these words—intimate, secure, unshakable. Just like a baby knows the sound of her mother’s voice, we are known by God in the deepest way. And just as a mother never lets go of her child, Jesus promises that we are held tightly in His hands. Nothing can take us from His grasp.
This Mother’s Day, I’m grateful for the women who’ve shown me what that kind of love looks like. For my mom, who has been a steady voice in my life. For my wife, whose love for our daughter already reflects God’s own and for the gift of new life, reminding me that we are all held in the strong, tender hands of a love that never lets us go.
Happy Mother’s Day to every woman who like Christ; loves fully, fiercely, and without condition.
