The Mothering Love of God
The Bible has descriptive language of God as a father; it also has beautiful metaphors for God as a mother. Today on Mother’s Day, I hope you can experience the mothering love of God: birthing you into new spiritual life, protecting you, guiding you, caring for you with compassion.
Thanks to the Women’s Ordination site for the inspiration!
Deuteronomy 32:11 [God is like a mother] eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.
Deuteronomy 32:18 [God says] You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
Job 38:29 [God says] From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?
Isaiah 42: 14 [God says] For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant.
Isaiah 49:15 [God says] Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
Isaiah 66:13 [God says] As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.
Hosea 11:3–4 [God says] It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.
Luke 13:34 [Jesus says] Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
I also love the way Paul described how he felt like a mother to the disciples he taught.
1 Thessalonians 2:7–8 [Paul says] As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children. We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
Galatians 4:19 [Paul says] Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.
Share this with someone who could use some tender love from God today.
