We celebrate Mother’s Day every year, and in thinking about mothers, it came to my mind that they should be honored universally and eternally. In Genesis 3:20 “Adam called his wife’s name Eve: because she was the mother of all living.”
After Eve transgressed, it was the beginning of life in the cold and dreary world or the telestial world where we now live. Life in this world must have been very difficult as she began to experience the difficulty of bringing forth children without a midwife or even very little knowledge of what exactly was happening to her (Genesis 3:16).
It was some time after the fall, before Adam learned of the atoning sacrifice of the only begotten of the Father. He was told to offer up sacrifices unto the Lord, without knowing why, but Adam was obedient, and after “many days” an Angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam and asked Him, saying, “Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord?” And Adam replied, “ I know not save the Lord commanded me,” and the Angel said, “This is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father who is full of grace and truth”(Moses 5). The scriptures say that this took place after “many days,” which must be translated as many years, in this case, as they had already had many sons and daughters before the time that this, the Plan of Salvation, was presented to them. Knowing of the Plan and the possibility of being redeemed from the fall was a time of great rejoicing for Adam and Eve, and they were told to teach it to their children, but Satan came among their children and deceived them and told them to “Believe it not!” (and they loved Satan more than God). Can you imagine Mother Eve’s sorrow as their children turned from them? Then Heavenly Father sent the Holy Ghost among the children of men, and many believed and repented and became the sons and daughters of God. Eve was probably overcome with joy when she saw renewed hope for many of her children.
Eve understood by now that if her children would repent and be faithful, that they would be redeemed from the fall and would again be able to return to the presence of God. I rather doubt, however, that she knew then that even the dead could be redeemed from the fall. That was a doctrine revealed to later prophets. At whatever point Eve learned of the work of redeeming the dead, it must have brought overwhelming joy to her heart.
The following is a poem written, as far as we know, anonymously, about a mother’s concern for her children, it was modified a little by my wife, Joanne, and reads as follows:
I think of times as the night draws nigh
Of an old house on the hill
Of a yard all wide and blossomed starred
Where children played at will
And when the night at last came down
Hushing the merry din,
Mother would look around and ask,
“Are all the children in?”
Tis many and many a year since then
And the old house on the hill
No longer echoes to childish feet
And the yard is still, so still
But I see it all, as the shadows creep
And though many the years have been
Since then, I can still hear mother ask,
“Are all the children in?”
I think of a mother before my own
A young man, a child, and even a babe
Sent by a kind God above.
Their names not yet found, discovered or seen
As though they had never been,
But their mother asks from a far off place,
“Please…are all my children in????”
There is no greater earthly love that we know of, than a mothers love for her children. Will all worthy mothers be standing at ‘the gate’ and asking, “Are all my children in???” Will mother Eve (the mother of all living) be standing there and asking, “Are all my children in???” Joseph Smith said, “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead… Therefore, seek diligently to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers”(mothers). Will you let your mother down?