The woman behind the man - Mother's Day, 2024

Amazingly, it was 20 years ago that the film “Spider-Man 2” was released.  To this day, it is one of my favorite movies.  When my pastor was speaking of the self-sacrifice of mothers today at church, my mind went to a wonderful scene from this film.  The context of this scene is Peter Parker, Spider-Man, was fed up with being the costumed hero.  If you’ve seen the film recently, you remember why; essentially everything goes wrong for Peter.  It eventually gets so frustrating for him that he chucks his Spidey costume in the trash. 

It was a boy named Henry who was helping his Aunt May move, who brought up Spider-Man in the memorable scene.  May comments that Henry wants to be Spider-Man.  When Peter asks why, she says, “Because he knows a hero when he sees one.  Too few characters out there, flying around like that saving old girls like me.  And Lord knows, kids like Henry need a hero – courageous, self-sacrificing people setting examples for all of us...I believe there’s a hero in all of us…even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most, even our dreams.”

Peter Parker’s birth parents are barely mentioned in the Tobey Maguire-led Spider-Man movie series.  Instead, it was the loving example of his aunt (and uncle) that helped shape him into the noble man presented to us in the trilogy.  She was the woman behind the man.  As for this storyline in “Spider-Man 2”, I love the thought that it was his aunt, his mother figure, who spoke into his life when he was at a crossroads in his life; she inspired him to live out his heroic identity, as Spider-Man.

As I mentioned, today my pastor was speaking of how mothers are self-sacrificing.  In fact, he went on to declare that their self-sacrificial nature is a picture of the selfness nature of Jesus Christ Himself.  He was right.  Very often, mothers are, to quote Aunt May again, “self-sacrificing people setting examples for all of us.”  Of course, no mother – and no father for that matter – is perfect.  But the way a mother selflessly gives, nurtures, and loves their children shapes them, it inspires them, to be a productive, noble man or woman.  The older I get, the clearer I see the self-sacrificial lifestyle that my own mother, Rose Mary, lived in my formative years, and that she still models to this very day.

In conclusion, I get that Mother’s Day can be a difficult day.  Perhaps your mother has died, or you have a strained relationship with her, or she was anything but self-sacrificing toward you.  Or whatever various scenarios may have occurred.  I’m not ignorant to the pain that may be present for you, right now, on Mother’s Day of 2024.  And, in no way whatsoever am I minimizing this reality.  Nevertheless, I still hope you take some time to express appreciation to your mother, or the woman who was a motherly figure in your life.  The years go by so fast; don’t miss out on the opportunity to bless your mother, while you can.

God bless,

Kevin