Audrey Marie Hessler

Lessons from Momsense Audrey Marie Hessler

The power of love and prayer to change a heart. A baby boomer, hippie-dippie 1960's-70's journey back to faith. This is a story about a trio of things. First, it is a message of transformation, a prodigal child's return to faith story that ignites when a mother says a prayer for her wayward child. The setting takes place in a historical time travel capsule jetting back to the youth and the coming of age years of the rebellious Baby Boomer generation. It's the counter-cultural, far out, hippie-dippie, "God is dead," flower power years. Second, this story is also about moms, mothers coming in many forms, and their momsense, that sense of a mom that could be called Mom's wisdom. Third, and last but not least, this story is about things that don't seem to make sense, like a mother's love and God's love. As a classroom teacher for many years, I assigned a journalism project, Eyewitness to History. The students interviewed someone who witnessed an event in history. Then, they relayed some key facts about the topic and how those historical hallmarks influenced that person's life. There was a 1950s TV series, and a play, I Remember Mama. It was based on the book, Mama's Bank Account, a tender rendering of a daughter, Katrin's recollection of her loving mother while growing up in a Norwegian family in San Francisco in the early 1900s. It is a homespun, cozy account of family life with its difficulties in simpler times. This is not that story. This eyewitness to history narrative is about a mother, and like Katrin's story, it tells of the powerful influence of a mother's love. But this story does not take place in simpler times. President John F. Kennedy, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated during these years. They were killed for all to watch in black and white on their television sets. It is the change-the-world 1960s -70s with shouts of "End the war!" The war is the Vietnam War, and most of those protesting against the war are called baby boomers. They are the children born after World War II ended, birthed in hopeful times when there was a boom of baby births. But another war begins. And if you are going to San Francisco now, it is not how Katrin described her life there. It's the wild ride of the '60s and those years repeat in the turmoil of the '70s with violent protests for peace until a President resigns and the war ends. When a prodigal child is transformed by love, and truth, and comes back to faith, when a mom's prayer and baby boomer momsense, and some other things that don't make sense lead on a roller coaster journey to know again a love that makes no sense, God's love - this is that story.