A Mother's Comfort Series

Charles Connick was an unknown artist in Boston who brought his mother to live with

him. They spent a summer at Cape Cod where they met a Mr. Swift. All summer Mr. Swift

noticed how Connick honored his mother. He was so impressed that he decided to do

something unusual. He was rich and had given a large fund to put stained glass windows in a

church in Brooklyn. He called the architect and asked him to hire Connick for the job.

The architect had never heard of him. "Has he ever done a window?" he asked. "No,"

said Swift, "But he loves his mother." "That does not make him a window artist!" he

responded. "I know," said Swift, "But a man who loves his mother will do his best, so give

him a chance." So Connick was asked to submit drawings, and they were the best submitted.

Connick went on to become the greatest church window craftsman in America and Europe,

and he got his first assignment because he honored his mother.

God promised His people great reward if they honored their parents. The 5th

Commandment is, "Honor your father and mother so that you may live long in the land the

Lord your God is giving you." Having a Mother's Day each year is consistent with biblical

values. God Himself goes as far in honoring parents that He identifies Himself with both

fathers and mothers. The fatherhood of God we are most familiar with, but the fact is, the

Bible reveals also the motherhood of God. All 3 persons of the Godhead are in some way

identified with motherhood. In our text filled with motherhood analogy God the Father says

in verse 13, "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you..." God could find no

better comparison to convey His love for His people then the comforting love of mother.

In the very beginning of the Bible in Gen. 1:2 we read that the Spirit of God moved or

hovered over the waters. The Hebrew word used for the Holy Spirit hovering over the

waters ready to give birth to all creation is the same word used of the mother eagle that

hovers over her young. In Deut. 32:11 we read, "Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and

hovers over its young...." The Holy Spirit takes on a mother's image in creation. The

creation story begins with this mother image of God, and is not completed until this aspect of

God's image is put into human form, and God creates Eve the first mother who was made in

God's image.

This first act of creation made it possible for the history of man to continue, for the

existence of a mother gave man the power to create life. By means of a mother God also

carried out His plan of salvation, for it was by means of a mother that His Son came into the

world. This 3rd person of the Godhead was also not shy about using mother imagery to

describe His love for man. In Matt. 23:37 Jesus laments the fact that His people are so

rebellious that they will have to suffer judgment. He says, "...how often I have longed to

gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not

willing." All 3 persons of the Godhead knows the joys and sorrows of the motherhood, for

they experience both motherly love that is accepted and rejected. Nobody understands

motherhood better than God. He made motherhood a major factor in life because it is a

part of His nature.

When mother-love functions properly it is the nearest thing there is to the love of God.

Unfortunately, mother-love is a part of a fallen world where all is less than it was meant to

be. The result is a lot of malfunctioning motherhood. We read of it everyday. Mothers go

off and leave their children home alone for days and weeks at a time, and sometimes they die

of neglect. Mothers abuse their children and sometimes even throw them away like

unwanted trash. We do not have to rehearse the daily news, for all of are aware that there

are many imperfect examples. Mothers are the best channel of God's unconditional love,

but they do not always work the way God intends.

Mothers need help to be all they can be. Just giving birth to a baby does not make a

woman a wonderful mother. Paul makes this clear when he writes in Titus 2:4 that older

women, "Can train the younger women to love their husbands and children..." In other

words, love is not just automatic for either husbands or children. It is a learned value. The

capacity is inherent to some degree, but the application needs wisdom and guidance. Not