As it is Mother’s Day, it felt appropriate to highlight Elle Limebear‘s journey to create her recent album ‘Welcome to the Bloodline’ which she started in the early stages of pregnancy, and has been a labour of love for the last five years. At the time she started writing it in lockdown, Elle (pronounced Ellie) was juggling morning sickness with songwriting sessions on zoom. Despite the difficulties, she saw so much growth in this time as she felt like she was starting afresh in every area of her life.
“It feels like I’ve grown in and learnt so much just in thess five years of writing this album,” Elle shared. “Just from the start to even recording so much has changed, yeah, it’s beautiful. I’ve become a mother in these five years. Twice. I had two little boys, but also so much breakthrough in my own life and learning to say goodbye to fear in these five years.”
This process of growth and motherhood made her consider: What am I passing down my bloodline?
Considering her legacy, history and ancestry, Elle reflected on her parents and grandparents, the stories of their faith, what they have walked through, and the faithfulness of Jesus:
“God’s just revealed to me so much, even with my own family – the past, the good and bad. Then also looking to the future now I’m a mother. What am I passing on? Again, the good and the bad. What’s in my bloodline that I’m passing down. For me, it was just this beautiful revelation that actually it’s up to us, of what we’re saying goodbye to and what we’re welcoming in and claiming. It ends with us and starts with us too, all at the same time.”
“We have a decision today,” Elle concludes. “What we can break off in the name of Jesus and what we can claim in the name of Jesus. And it’s been such a journey, honestly, and it’s not been glamorous but it’s been beautiful to walk with Jesus in it and him show so many, so many things. This album really has such themes of family, of faithfulness and goodness, of breakthrough and freedom. And that’s honestly what’s been going on in my life. That’s what he’s been doing in my life. And so these songs are of breakthrough.”
~
Reflecting on my interview with Elle, her album, and in light of Mother’s Day, I was reminded of Ruth 1:16, where Ruth tells her mother-in-law Naomi:
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
The lyrics of Elle’s title track ‘Bloodline‘ declares that “You are the God of my fathers, You are the God of my mothers, You’ve been faithful for all time, You turn the old into new wine.”
In the Bible, we see that Naomi, as her mother-in-law, was a mother figure to Ruth. Through the hardships of the loss of her sons, Ruth witnessed Naomi’s faith to God and His faithfulness to her. This relationship with her mother-in-law impacted her so greatly that she left behind her people and what she knew to stay with Naomi, to live among Naomi’s people and worship her God. Ruth’s descendants, generations later, resulted in the birth of Jesus Christ.
Whether we are biological mothers, mothers-in-law, foster mums, adoptive mums, mother figures or spiritual mothers, the way we demonstrate our faith impacts those we nurture, as we have been impacted by those who have nurtured us.
Our challenge this mother’s day, then, is to ask ourselves: what are we passing down our (literal or metaphorical) bloodline?
