Motherly love (7th Sunday of Easter, 12 May)
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers!
Let us all give thanks for our mother who gave us our life, nurtured us, sheltered us, cared for us, and taught us our first lessons of life. It is good to remind ourselves that although the male pronoun is used for God throughout the Bible, there are many references that highlight female and motherly characteristics of our loving God. Here are some of them:
- God comforts his people like a mother comforts her child (Isaiah 66: 13)
- Like a woman would never forget her nursing child, God will not forget his children (Isaiah 49: 15)
- God is like a mother eagle hovering over her young (Deuteronomy 32: 11)
- God seeks the lost like a housekeeper, trying to find her lost coin (Luke 15: 8–10)
- God cares for his people like a midwife that cares for the child she just delivered (Psalm 22: 9–10, Psalm 71: 6, Isaiah 66: 9)
- God experiences the fury of a mother bear robbed of her cubs (Hosea 13: 8)
- Jesus longed for the people of Jerusalem, like a mother hen longs to gather her chicks under her wings (Luke 13: 34)
What wonderful reminders that our mothers are made in God’s loving image!
May the blessing of the Divine
Be an especially bright benediction
Upon mothers everywhere
On your blessed day –
On Mother’s Day!
Grace and peace to you all,
Chris