Written 5/8/21 for Mothers’ Day 2021
(Art work by Faye Maynard)
Fruitful
You’re beautiful, now may you bloom in beauty.
And blossoms of your loveliness abound
Like sprouting seeds of springtime flowers
Strewn like petals all around.
May you be fruitful, may you flourish and increase
Through every season with God’s grace and love and peace.
May your children rise up and call you blessed.
May you be fruitful!
May your works grow lush as leaves in summer
As crafted meals, delicious, homemade fare
Paintings, photographs, and artwork,
And deeds of mercy, love and care
May you be fruitful, may you flourish and increase
Through every season with God’s grace and love and peace.
May your children rise up and call you blessed.
May you be fruitful!
Clothed with strength and with dignity.
May you laugh at days that are to come.
And may those days to come be filled with laughter.
Seasons change and autumn winds blow cooler.
But fruit is rich and ripe upon vine
And leaves blaze in a fiery glory
May you age like finest wine
May you be fruitful, may you flourish and increase
Through every season with God’s grace and love and peace.
May your children rise up and call you blessed.
May you be fruitful!
Comment:
They say that women, like fine wine, get better with age. I don’t know about that, but I do know two of them who have: the two mothers in my life – my own mother and my wife, who is the mother of my two sons.
They are like the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 – full of strength, dignity, good works, and beauty.
This song was written to my wife after looking at a painting of hers (the art featured here is a pastel by my wife, Faye Maynard). It struck me that the painting was about fruitfulness, but it also embodied her fruitfulness. I started to think of the areas of fruit in her life. I had fun thinking of the blessings that have flowed from her hands and felt joy and hope thinking of those blessings that are to come. I used seasons as a metaphor for the course of a fruitful life. Regarding the future, the last verse anticipates the joys – and maybe the challenges – of growing old together. May those days to come be filled with laughter!
My own mother, Betty Mullens, is similarly terrifically talented, and she expresses that in beautiful music, wisdom, and service to others.
A hearty thank you to these two women whom I love!
Bill Maynard,
Mothers’ Day 2021