No, God is not our mother. He has revealed himself to us as our Father (John 14:1–14); and yet, we sometimes find him being compared to a mother in Scripture. In Isaiah, Zion complains to the Lord that he has forsaken her, and he responds: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isa 49:15). God uses the image of a mother’s love for her child as a reference point for revealing the depths of his own love for Zion.
You and I both know that the bond between a mother and her child is unique. What child does not have a special affinity for his mother? What mother is not willing to go to great lengths for the well-being of her child? We see this even in the world of non-rational animals. For example, the mother of a certain species of octopus has been observed to protect her eggs as they develop for over four years! During that time, she would not even eat, in order to remain by her eggs. Once they hatched, she died after having slowly wasted away while brooding.
Thus, the comparison that God makes of himself to a mother seems apt. As a mother loves her child, so God loves Zion, his own children. But, in fact, God takes the analogy one step further. When he puts forth the rhetorical question to Zion, the anticipated answer is “Well no, of course a mother cannot forget her child!” From this response, we would then be led to conclude that neither is God forgetful of or without compassion for his children. But then he adds: “Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” For while a mother loves her child much, God loves his children even more.
The reality is that while nothing in our world compares to the love a mother has for her child, such love is still imperfect. Mothers can and do forget their children, and they may not always be there to show compassion when their child suffers. But despite these imperfections, the exemplary affection a mother has for her child still remains one of the most fitting examples that can help lead us to a deeper insight into God’s love for us. If I were trying to communicate to you the unsurpassable grandeur of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, I would be much more effective if I compared it to Notre Dame in Paris rather than my local parish church which was converted from a six-car garage and holds less than 200 people. In other words, we are able to catch a glimpse into the unsurpassable endurance of God’s love by the comparison only because of the true greatness of a mother’s love.
A mother loves her child by protecting him from all kinds of danger, but God sends us his angels to keep us as we walk along his way (Ps 91:11–12). A mother loves her child by comforting him in sorrow, but God consoles us in all our affliction (2 Cor 1:3–7) and even takes our afflictions upon himself (Isa 53:4). A mother loves her child by feeding him from her own body, but God feeds us with his own flesh that will endure to eternal life (John 6:54–55). On the one hand, the contrast illuminates the dignity of motherhood insofar as mothers participate in God’s love in a unique way that makes them apt examples for comparison. While on the other hand, the contrast helps us to see a bit more clearly just how solicitous God is towards us his children. Therefore, as we would readily fly to mom for nourishment, consolation, protection, and many other good things, so should we confidently approach the Lord with open hearts all the more.
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Photo by Jon Chambers on Unsplash
