Mother’s Day can feel complicated, overwhelming, disappointing, thrilling, or a myriad of other emotions from all around the feelings wheel. Some women might feel multiple emotions about this “exciting day” all at once. For me, it is a feeling of dread with little sprinkles of joy. Without getting into all the complexities of my motherhood journey, here is the short version: loss, adoption, biological living child. Three girls in three years. It’s complicated. I ache for my daughter who is not here on earth with me, but I also rejoice because of the two daughters who are in my arms. I know I am not alone in my big feelings about this day. For many, this holiday is reason to skip church, stay off social media, or keep a tissue box on hand throughout the day. 
 
On this day, some women visit gravesites, some go out for brunch. Some women receive cards from family members, and some are writing one less card this year. Some women are holding onto hands, small, dirt under the fingernail hands, or hands raw from doing the work of motherhood, or wrinkled with wisdom hands, and some are wishing they had a hand to hold. 
 
God is not shocked by our responses or reflections toward this day, for he knows there is a time for all emotions and feelings. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 says, 
 
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
 
Today, for everyone, I am wishing us a gentle day. A may-God-meet-you-right-where-you-are day. Let your tears fall. Let your laughter ring. Let your gut twist with cherished memories that make you ache or with grief that takes you to your knees. Let your heart swell with the joy of being around the ones you love in the middle of your messy, beautiful chaos. Weep for what never was or rejoice for what has come. None of it is too much for God to hold.