There is a three-word verse in the New Testament wherein Jesus says simply, “Remember Lot’s wife.”  (Luke 19:32).  He gave this admonition as a warning that we should not turn back nor hesitate when we’ve been commanded to flee from approaching danger.  Many times the experience of Lot’s wife is used as a warning to those who have repented of their sins, been baptized, and have then looked back longingly at their old lives and habits.

This is a proper use of the story, but I think there is another aspect to the story that is overlooked.  The men or angels who came to Lot told him that they were going to overthrow the city.  They instructed him to warn his other family members to flee with him.  “And Lot went out, and spake with his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city.  But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.”  (Genesis 19:14).

In the morning the men urged Lot and his wife to leave.  Lot and his wife were reluctant and dawdled.  The men took them and led them out of the city and told them not to look back.  When the fire and brimstone descended, Lot’s wife turned and looked and became a pillar of salt.

I don’t think she looked back because she was longing for her old life so much as she was longing for her children.  She was a mother.  She was a grandmother.  She was leaving some daughters and their precious babies, and they were being consumed by the fire and brimstone that rained down upon Sodom.

When I remember Lot’s wife, I think of mothers and the love they have for their children.

There are other mothers in the scriptures who had to leave their children when fleeing impending destruction.  Noah was 600 years old when he boarded the ark.  (Genesis 7:6).  Japheth was 150, Shem 108, and Ham 100.  (Moses 8:12).  These men and their wives were all undoubtedly parents and grandparents.  When he boarded the ark, Noah was leaving behind many generations of descendants.

Imagine the heartache of those women.  They had pled with their sons and daughters and grandchildren to repent and to help with the construction of the ark, but they were ignored or worse.  As it was with Lot’s sons-in-law they “seemed as one that mocked.”  They considered Noah and his sons and their wives crazy.  It wasn’t reasonable to think that there could be a flood of such a magnitude as to require an ark.

Those sorrowing mothers, our ancestors, boarded the ark and reluctantly left their adult children and their children’s children behind.  The scriptures say that only eight people survived the Flood, but it won’t surprise me if we learn that there were some small children and babies aboard, too.  These women were still of childbearing age, so it’s hard to think that they didn’t still have young ones to care for.  Perhaps the chroniclers didn’t deem them worthy of mention.

Think of the heartbreak those mothers felt for their unheeding children who refused to listen to their pleadings.  An apocraphal story tells of them hearing people pounding on the sides of the ark after the door was shut and the rains had begun.  Those people wanted in.  They now believed.  Were those their children that were banging on the ark?

Like Lot’s wife those women weren’t looking back with longing for their old lives, but were looking back with mourning for their foolish and unheeding children and their children’s innocent babies.