Mother Hunger
Isaiah 66:7-13
Last week we looked at God as our Father, and for everyone here that’s not a very hard concept to get your head around. We have heard it, read it, and even sung it. While we are comfortable with talking about God as a father, many of us may break out in a sweat at the suggestion that he is also like a mother.
Tonight I want to assure you that I am not making an attempt to be politically correct. I would much rather be biblically precise. As Oswald Chambers has written, "The mothering affection of God is revealed all through the Old Testament."
Furthermore when we say that God is like a mother just echoes what the scriptures teach about our God. Keep in mind that we’re working with metaphors scripture compares him to a mother eagle, a lioness, a womb that gives birth, and a mother hen watching over her chicks.
God is not human so to try to only think of Him in human form limits the greatness of God. After all we are told that God is a father, a mother, a shepherd, a king, a fire, a shield, and a rock. These words provide comparisons for us to help us understand who this Almighty One is and what he’s like. Each image has its limitations, of course. For example, there are ways in which God is like a father and other ways in which he’s not. Our task is to discover out of the many possibilities what that metaphor is intended to tell us about God.
Much of my discomfort , and I am sure yours as well, in comparing God to a mother is that we have tended to conceive of God as a male-even though God clearly is neither male nor female. Scripture helps us understand God by using both masculine and feminine language. Even when he’s called a father, we’re dealing with a metaphor. God is not flesh-and-blood! But the language of fatherhood evokes many truths that are appropriate to who God is and to the nature of our relationship with him.
Tonight I do not want to ignore or "explain away" the feminine metaphors. We have a Bible professor in one of our Universities who is an avid student of medieval literature and believes that the worship of Mary in the Catholic Church stems largely from centuries of failure to study and appreciate these feminine metaphors.
The church has been left with a lopsided, masculine picture of God, Those in the Catholic Church needed Mary as an avenue to express the godly traits of compassion, acceptance, and nurturing.
When we study the mothering side of God, we discover a God who yearns for intimacy with us. This Holy One longs to be close to his people as a mother longs to be with her child.
Here is an area where Trista has a distinct advantage over me. For nine months she carried the boys in a warm, safe, cozy place. I don’t believe that their life will ever be that secure again.
By the time that the Boys got to see my face it was the worst day of his life! He was forced from his place of sanctuary, spanked, wiped roughly with a towel, given a shot, had blood taken, placed under bright lights, poked and prodded, talk about a rotten day. But then the child decides he may survive when someone hands him back to Mom and he hears the familiar sound of her heart beat, the soothing sound of her voice. Again, he is close and secure.
I believe that this picture is painted for us in the last chapter of the book of Isaiah when God speaks of his people returning from exile. Turn with me to Isaiah 66:7-8 and lets read this beautiful portrait of Mother Zion receiving her children:
Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. Isaiah 66:7- 8
Then if you will go down 5 verses the picture changes to a mother comforting her children:
As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you win be comforted over Jerusalem. Isaiah 66:13
Aching to Be Near
In Psalm 131:1-3 the psalmist compares our relationship to God to that of a weaned child with its mother:
My heart is not proud, 0 LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. o Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.
Prior to weaning, there are many reasons a child might want to be with Mom, but most of them have to do with what she can provide. She is the great supplier of life as she fulfills the need of sustenance.
A weaned child, however, learns to be satisfied in merely being with her mother. It’s often very different with Dad. When I get to spend time with the boys it’s time to wrestle, and roll on the floor. “Dad let’s go play soccer, or go fishing, or dig a hole.” It is very rarely that the boys will just plop down on the couch just to be near me. But every hour of every day the boys climb up Trista or ask to be held.
Just as the boys have learned to just enjoy Mom’s presence without hoping to get something from her, I believe that we who are the sons and daughters of God ache for God’s presence. We long for moments to be with him, to sense his nearness-not because of what he can give us but because of who he is. We long for moments to be with him, to sense his nearness.
The weaned relationship is a restful one. Eugene Peterson put it this way, "Christian faith is not neurotic dependence but childlike trust. We do not have a God who forever indulges our whims but a God whom we trust with our destinies."
Fiercely Protective
The language of motherhood evokes not only the thought of intimacy but also the idea of protection. God is a fierce protector of his children:
Hosea 13:8 says that “God is a bear whose cubs have been taken away”
Deuteronomy 32:11 says that God is “an eagle guarding her nest”
And we read in Matthew 23:37 that God is “a hen brooding over her chicks”
A powerful example of a mother’s protective instincts came recently to public prominence. Dr. Elizabeth Morgan, a renowned surgeon, author, and graduate of Harvard and Yale, spent a couple of years in prison in Washington, D.C., to protect her six-year-old daughter from rape.
When her daughter, Hilary, was still a toddler, she began to exhibit signs of sexual abuse by her father, Dr. Morgan’s ex-husband. Thirteen doctors and psychiatrists examined the girl, and eleven concluded that she had indeed been abused. But when the judge studied the evidence, his opinion was that it was inconclusive. He ordered that she spend a two-week visit with her father-an unsupervised visit!
Convinced that this was court-sanctioned abuse, Dr. Morgan sent her daughter into hiding. For almost two years she shared a 6’ x 11’ cell with criminals because of her "contempt of court." She sacrificed her medical practice, her savings, and her liberty to protect her child.
That is what Scripture is talking about when it refers to God being our rock, our shield, our fortress, our hiding place, and our shelter. God is the one who never abandons us in times of danger. He protects us in our sufferings.
Everyone has moments growing up when they want to curl up and call out, "I want my mommy!" Scripture is telling us there is One like a mother who we can come to, One who will surround us with loving protection.
With His last breath on the cross Jesus cried out, "Into your hands I commit my spirit". At the worst moment in His life Jesus ached for the compassion and love that only God His Father could give. I wonder tonight: Into whose hands do we commit our spirits?
When we face the worst times of our lives, aging parents, endangered marriages, rebellious children, financial problems, frightening symptoms, unexpected diagnoses, embarrassing pasts, or unsure futures, into whose hands will we commit our lives?
Endlessly Devoted
A third idea suggested by the language of motherhood is that of endless devotion. Earlier this year unknowingly I brought the flu into our home. Even thought it would be a week before I started showing the symptoms Trafton and Rylan started right away. To make matters worse they were fixing the water lines towards Yampertown and we didn’t have any water.
Trafton and Rylan were sick, I mean SICK, and there was no water to clean up after them and they needed to be held. Being the kind and compassionate husband and father that I am, I volunteered to do anything that would get me out of the house and away from the smell of sickness. But Trista was always there willing to wash the boys down with Baby wipes, willing to rock them both at the same time for hours on end.
When no one else will receive you, Mom will. You’re never too sick or ugly for her.
In Luke 15 we see God compared to a woman sweeping the house, frantically in search of a lost coin. She is desperate to find it. The coin in the parable represents the people whom God loves. The story clearly illustrates what author K. Chesterton calls "the furious love of God."
The next story in Luke 15 is about a father who wouldn’t let go of his son. What a powerful parable! And yet it could have been told of a mother welcoming her child back. Mothers of prodigal children never stop calling, praying, waiting.
What would the parable of the prodigal son sound like if the imagery was feminine instead of masculine? Perhaps it would be like the poignant Brazilian story told by Max Lucado.
A beautiful young woman named Christina left her mother, Maria, to try her luck in the big city. But with mere survival much more difficult than she had imagined, Christina turned to prostitution to put food in her stomach and a roof over her head.
The effects of hard living and sin quickly began to take their toll on Christina’s beautiful body and disposition. She became lonely and depressed, wanting more than anything to return to her mother and their tiny village But how could she? As Thomas Wolfe said, "You can’t go home again." So her life of misery continued.
But Maria, after figuring out what her restless daughter had done, scraped together enough money for a bus ticket and headed for the city. She combed the bars and hotels, hoping and searching. In prominent places, she left a picture of herself in hopes that her daughter would see the picture and read the message on the back. Sadly, her money ran out and she had to return to her lonely village.
But one evening as Christina descended the stairs from her room, she saw one of the pictures in the hotel parlor. She grabbed it and ran her fingers over it, as if she were a little girl caressing her mother’s soft face. Then she noticed the note on the back-a note which said simply, "I love you. No matter what you have done, please come home." And that’s just what she did. Thomas Wolfe was wrong!
The parable of Luke 15 might also sound like that wonderful moment form the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. It comes after the son has wasted the insurance money his family received from his father’s death. He invested it in a business scheme to try to pull his poor, black Chicago family out of their poverty. But his dream was demolished before it even began when his business partner left town with all the money.
His sister was ready to disown him because part of the money he lost was her portion that was supposed to send her to college. "There is nothing left to love," she declares. But her mother scolds her:
There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don’t mean for yourself and for the family ’cause we lost the money. I mean for him: what he been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most?
When they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well, then you ain’t through learning because that ain’t the time at all. It’s when he’s at his lowest and can’t believe in hisself ’cause the world done whipped him so! When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.
Our God is like this mother-wanting to cradle, longing to nurture, yearning to protect, aching to forgive. Isaiah presents this clearly in Isaiah 49:15:
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!
Mother Hunger
God’s love knows no end. It is a maternal love that knows no limitations. Just as there is a "father hunger," there is also a "mother hunger" in the land. And again, satisfaction of our deepest needs can only be met by this One described in Scripture as "like a mother."
Many have never felt the comfort of intimate, protective relationships with loving mothers. Maybe their mothers were cold and distant, suffered from depression, were cruelly abusive, or maybe were completely absent. But even good mothers can’t be perfect and fill all our needs. Only God can do that.
When we turn our longings for a mother relationship from human women, who can never measure up, to a loving God, who is perfect and loving and draws us up to comfort us, we can finally experience that unconditional, nurturing love we’ve been yearning for.
But unfortunately some of the saddest words in Scripture apply to us tonight. We read in Deuteronomy 32: 18: "You forgot the God who gave you birth."
It is my prayer that we never forget God! May we remember how God carried us, gave us birth, nursed us to health, and continues to love us with a perfect mother’s love. May we thank the one who gives us life. May we spend the rest of our lives saying thank you.
