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Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a great week. And let me extend an early “Happy Mother’s Day!” to all the moms, grandmas, and to the many ladies who carry various versions of the motherly role in their families and wider community settings. You are all so very special, and you’re much appreciated.

(I suppose this is also a friendly reminder to the rest of us: don’t forget that Mother’s Day is coming. Whatever your personal tradition is for honoring the moms in our midst, if you haven’t started preparing yet, this would be a good time to make some plans. )

Moms deserve to be treated with love and respect all the time, of course. But I’m glad we’ve set aside a day to be especially mindful about this. Our mothers are so very important as the ones who bring us into the world, care for us, who often are the cement that hold our families together, and who so wonderfully model God’s love.

People sometimes complain that the Bible has a lot to say about “fatherhood,” especially in relation to God, but not so very much about motherhood. At a superficial level, they have a point. The Bible speaks fairly often about our Heavenly Father, while avoiding anything that might sound like “Heavenly Mother” language. If we don’t read carefully, that could create the impression that motherhood isn’t so important in Scripture.

But it is a superficial perspective, and—like so many misunderstandings—involves a failure to pay attention to context (and also to detail).

The cultures of the ancient near-east universally put leadership in the hands of the father, grandfather or eldest son in the family. The moms weren’t unimportant. But life revolved around the property you owned, and that property was legally held by the eldest eligible man, who was also responsible to care for the land. So to the writers and first readers of the Bible, it made sense to compare God to a good and powerful Father who was head over his family. Furthermore, in the pagan religion of that day, goddesses who did any kind of creating always did so by giving birth. To the Bible’s first readers, calling God “Mother” would amount to saying that God made the universe out of His own body by giving birth to it. That, of course, is absolutely not what the Bible teaches about creation, and it runs against the concept of God’s holiness. So “mother” language for God was avoided because it would cause nothing but confusion.

Having said that, the Bible does affirm in various ways that the best of what we call “motherly” qualities are also a reflection of God’s own nature. For example:

  • Both man and woman are created in God’s image! (Gen 1:26-27)
  • The Bible repeatedly describes God as caring for and protecting His people the way a mother bird spreads her wings over her chicks. (Eg: Deuteronomy 32:11; compare Ps 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 91:4)  
  • Jesus uses this same image for His love for Jerusalem, saying He longed to gather the people together like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. (Mat 23:37; Lk 13:34)
  • God is also described as having “given birth” to His people. (Deuteronomy 32:18)
  • Can a woman forget or not care about her nursing child? Not likely, but perhaps. By contrast, God will never forget the people He cares about. (Isaiah 49:15)
  • And God comforts His people the way a mother comforts her children. (Isaiah 66:13)
  • He took Israel “in His arms,” teaching them to walk, like a loving parent. (Hosea 11:3)
  • Following God’s example, Paul says that when he served among the church in Thessalonica, he and his colleagues were gentle among them like a nursing mother. (1 Thessalonians 2:7)

You get the picture, I think. The Bible avoids using “Heavenly Mother” language, and for good reason. But it teaches us that God’s parental love for His children is a model of the very best care provided by both our earthly fathers and our earthly mothers. He created us to have both parents. He expects both fathers and mothers to reflect Him as we care for our own families. We are to honor both our fathers and mothers. Both play crucial, wonderful roles in God’s plan and in our own lives.

So yes, it’s very appropriate for us to celebrate, honor, appreciate, and show love to all those moms, grandmoms and others who play mother-roles in our midst. They really are a precious gift from God. And they really do reflect His goodness and love to us.  I’m so grateful for my own mom and grandma, for my amazing wife, and for all the others in our church and wider community. Thank you for being you!!

On other fronts, if you’re wanting to get a head-start on this Sunday’s Scripture passage, this week we’re going to look at another rarely-preached text from Genesis 29-30. Chapter 29:1-30 gives the background from the life of Jacob and his marriages to two sisters, Rachel and Leah. Chapter 29:31 through 30:24 describes what might be called “The battle of the babies.” If you’re able to read all the way from 29:1 through 30:24 you’ll get the best sense of the overall passage. If you aren’t able to do that, don’t worry, we’ll talk our way through the essential ideas on Sunday.

Meanwhile, have a blessed and wonderful week. See you soon!
—Pastor Ken