As it is written in Romans 1:20, God’s invisible power and divine nature are clearly revealed through the world He created. Among all creation, God placed an amazing power in the love of mothers. Through two different scientific studies published recently, I came to realize even more the value of our Heavenly Mother’s love for us.
The first was a study on human aging. Telomeres, an important part of everyone’s DNA, helps prevent genetic damage from aging. The longer someone’s telomeres are, the longer he or she can usually live before suffering from age related diseases. According to a research study published in the journal Biological Psychology, people who grew up with cold (unaffectionate) mothers had 25% shorter telomeres later in life than those who had warm and loving mothers. If the love of earthly mothers has the power to preserve our physical life, how much more will our Heavenly Mother’s love sustain the life of our souls?
The second was a study on depression presented at the Neural Information Processing Systems [NeurIPS] Conference in Vancouver, Canada. A research team there found that a part of the brain behaves differently in depressed people than in healthy people. Wanting to test this connection more carefully, they decided to experiment on mice. To perform this experiment, they needed to make mice vulnerable to depression. In humans, one of the biggest risk factors for depression in adulthood is having childhood trauma. By separating newborn mice from their mothers for 3 hours each day for 20 days, the scientists were able to make the mice permanently vulnerable to depression later in life. Such a short separation for newborn mice from their mothers caused permanent harm later in life.
It is amazing how a mother’s love affects her children. Through the study results, I came to think of the inextricable relationship between mothers and their children, and I was reminded of how crucial it is that we constantly receive our Heavenly Mother’s love every day. I was also ashamed that I had not shown Mother’s love more earnestly to the spiritual newborns in Zion. From now on, I will try harder to give love to my heavenly family so that they can all grow up with a strong and healthy faith.