God’s Heart of a mother

 https://i.pinimg.com/originals/70/95/68/709568e81c533d119ba44c081c547fcd.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/70/95/68/709568e81c533d119ba44c081c547fcd.jpg

“This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,      
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in is his own image;

Then into it, he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen.  Amen.”

So ends the poem, The Creation, by James Weldon Johnson. As much as the imagery intrigued me the first time I read the poem in high school, I bristled against it. After all, isn’t it “our Father who art in heaven” that we pray to? This almost seemed sacrilegious to depict Him as a mother. Still, I applauded it for drawing attention to the uniqueness of the creation of man over the rest of creation. The expression of the love, devotion, and nearness of God with the pinnacle of all His work resonated with me, with the intimacy I was certain God had intended for all to enjoy.

I recalled my struggle with the poem when, sometime later, I read a similar expression right from God’s mouth through His prophet Isaiah. “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you, And you will be comforted in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:13 NKJV). The chapter is a very interesting passage of scripture, especially as the earlier verses present an even more motherly image of God.

As the Holy Spirit often does, He reminded me of another verse. In Luke 13, we see Jesus on the hillside overlooking Jerusalem when in verse 34 He lamented, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!” In this simple comparison, Jesus expresses the same heart of God as the prophet Isaiah did. The same intimacy, attentiveness, and compassion. The same beginning—a love being poured out from God’s heart onto those who spurn Him.

It’s natural that Jesus would express it so. He said He did only what He had seen His Father do. Jesus—Immanuel—God with us. Of course He would echo God’s heart and words. He never changes, being the same yesterday, today, and forever—the Great I Am. And we can add, a heart like a mother.

Listen with Your Eyes - Mother and child walking, holding hands

Mother’s Day was a few days ago, and the busyness of life has probably cast it farther behind your thoughts than it really is by now. However, think about this wonder. Of all the ways God could impart an image of His desired nearness and bond to His people, He chose a mother.

Charles Huff

Charles Huff is a Bible teacher, minister, speaker, husband, father and grandfather. He and his wife have held pastors seminars and taught in various churches, including remote mountain churches in the Philippines. His writing has appeared in www.christiandevotions.us, The Upper Room; articles in three anthologies: Gifts from Heaven: True Stories of Miraculous Answers to Prayer compiled by James Stuart Bell; Short and Sweet Too and Short and Sweet Takes a Fifth, both compiled by Susan Cheeves King.

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