Thinking about Maternal Influence this Christmas

When my maternal grandmother passed away this year, I had on a cloak of sadness. I shed tears a few times during her funeral. Even after the funeral was over, my heart still had this lingering grief. Why was I feeling this way? I was not even close to her – I hardly saw her because she lived a few hours away. She cared for my younger brother and not me when we were younger. I would rather think it’s because of how the generational favouritism, trauma and burden were vividly passed down from her to my mum to me. And now she’s gone, it felt like some chapters of my life are now closed – to forgive and let go.

Soon I saw a quote on Instagram (@crystallimlange) that added another layer of sense to the emotions bubbling in my subconscious.

I was amazed by this fact. Before this, I only knew how we parent our children will influence the next few generations, which can be abstract and ambiguous to some. In contrast, it is a scientific fact that mothers have a biological influence on the next two generations. For example, the food she ate had influence, as mentioned on www.urmc.rochester.edu, oxygen and nutrients from the mother’s blood are transferred across the placenta to the fetus through the umbilical cord. That’s the seen part, I think the unseen part of her mental and emotional health has a larger influence.

while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

I used to think about the unfairness of the patriarchal system – why do descendants take on the fathers’ name and inheritance by default? That’s the main reason why men have always been favoured over women in many societies since time began.

Then it suddenly came upon me – that’s the seen part. The children follow the father on such things because, in my opinion, children have been inheriting much more from the mother’s bloodline than the father. On the unseen side of things, not only in terms of food nutrients, and psychological state of influence, but also perhaps in DNA. I found out about the latter after I did some Googling. A NY Times article showed how we are more related to our mother than our father because of the mitochondrial DNA inherited from the mother:

Our mitochondrial DNA accounts for a small portion of our total DNA. It contains just 37 of the 20,000 to 25,000 protein-coding genes in our body. But it is notably distinct from DNA in the nucleus. Unlike nuclear DNA, which comes from both parents, mitochondrial DNA comes only from the mother.

Nobody fully understands why or how fathers’ mitochondrial DNA gets wiped from cells. An international team of scientists recently did a research, published this week in the journal Science, and showed that paternal mitochondria in this type of roundworm have an internal self-destruct mechanism that gets activated when a sperm fuses with an egg.

It’s well known that the transfer of mitochondrial DNA from mother to offspring, often called maternal inheritance, occurs in humans and most multicellular organisms. Maternal inheritance is what allows genetic testing services like 23andMe to trace our maternal ancestries. You inherited your mitochondrial DNA from your mother, who inherited hers from her mother and so forth.
Maternal inheritance also gave rise to the idea that there exists a “Mitochondrial Eve,” a woman from whom all living humans inherited their mitochondrial DNA.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/24/science/mitochondrial-dna-mothers.html

In a sermon, Dr David Jeremiah pointed out how Joseph is often the forgotten man of Christmas. God had chosen not any other man, but the just man of Joseph as the earthly father of Jesus. Joseph became the “stepfather” of Jesus, taking care of the family of Mary and Jesus. It’s a big role to take too.

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.

Matthew 1:19 (NKJV)

On the other hand, most people wouldn’t automatically regard Mary as the stepmother but as the mother of Jesus. She was more intricately and biologically involved in the birth of Jesus than Joseph. I wondered if when God chose Mary to give birth to Jesus, He also considered her ancestry because I assumed Mary’s mitochondrial DNA will also be passed to Him.

Regardless, the mother’s blood doesn’t mix with the fetus’s blood because the placenta acts as a barrier between the two bloodstreams:

One of the placenta’s main functions is to serve as the interface between the mother’s and fetus’s bloodstreams. Nutrients and oxygen from the mother’s blood pass into the baby’s bloodstream through the placenta. Meanwhile, the baby excretes carbon dioxide and waste products through the umbilical blood vessels. But the blood of the fetus and the blood of the mother never meet. The placenta handles the exchange.

www.cedars-sinai.org

Thus on the cross, it is truly HIS blood, the blood that can be considered a pure sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. It is not mixed with the blood of the unclean.

For this is My bloodof the new covenant,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins

Matthew 26:28 (NKJV)

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

Revelation 1:5 (NKJV)

As we thank God for His gift of Jesus this season, let us also drink from His cup to remember His blood shed for many for the remission of sins. And as freely He gives us His Son, let us also freely give and bless the people around us – with our resources, time, forgiveness and love.

Blessed Christmas. ✝️

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