Moms Matter
As we approach Mother’s Day, we tend to get sentimental. That’s a good thing for Mom is a pretty important person in our life.
When the Creator designed Moms – He designed Mom’s body to cradle you close to her heart where you would feel safe. He placed within Mom the ability to nurture, love, and bless you – though that may have been sabotaged if she didn’t grow up in a loving home.
Without a doubt, Moms play an important role in shaping us and setting our feet on a firm foundation.
Today, our world is filled with pain. Though we are adults, we need a mother to love and affirm us, to bless and encourage us. Maybe you are shaking your head in dismay. Perhaps you don’t have anyone in your life to play that role. My mom is in heaven. Though I am a grandmother, I still long to experience the mothering heart.
The Mother Heart
Because man and woman are made in God’s image, each has something unique of God’s image. Mothers who love, care, and demonstrate mercy, then in wisdom and kindness guide their children on the path of life portray the tender mother heart of God.
Are you a Mom or a Grandma? Or do you love to mother those around you? Mothers are called to love with a pure heart, so those you interact with feel safe with God.
The truth is, because you are human, you can only do this under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Mothers who love, care, and demonstrate mercy, portray the tender mother heart of God.
The Mama Hen in Scripture
From childhood, I loved Jesus because He was kind to children. One day, as I read about Jesus telling the Pharisees He was like a mother hen who gave her life for her chicks, I fell in love with Him.
I suddenly understood why I could take all my fears to Him. I was safe with Jesus – He wouldn’t criticize or shame me, for knowing everything about me He loved and accepted me just as I was.
Nurture from a Nursing Mother
Here’s where things get interesting. A couple years later, I learned the Holy Spirit is like a nursing mother. I was a Mom and loved nursing my babies, for it was a precious time of intimacy and connection.
Was it possible He could comfort me like a mother when my heart was breaking? My heart was filled with awe when I realized He wanted to mother me. Through the years, I’ve found He has a nurturing and compassionate heart. Yes! He has the heart of a mother who reflects the beauty and grace of God.
Many react with fear or anger at the thought of God being a Father because of trauma suffered at the hands of their dad.
But the thought that God could be a Mother – is jarring. Few of us would give credence to such a thought, possibly finding it sacrilegious to imply God might be feminine.
Now hang in there with me. Didn’t God need both masculine and feminine qualities for Him to say females are made in His image?
My heart was filled with awe when I realized He wanted to mother me.
God is Like a Mother Eagle
I think you will agree with me that most of us are fascinated by eagles. The eagle’s nest is not complete until the female has gathered an assortment of things such as feathers and fur to pad the thorns, sharp twigs, and rocks she crafted the nest out of, providing a soft place to lay her eggs.
The eaglets are happy to stay in the nest where they are comfortable. When the time comes for them to learn to fly, Mama Eagle uses her talons to expose the sharp thorns to make the eaglets uncomfortable. Then she hovers (flutters) in the air demonstrating to her young how to use their wings to fly. She may nudge the eaglet out of the nest; when he falls, soaring beneath him, she catches him and carries it back to the nest – until the eaglet learns to fly.
Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 32:11-12a that God is like a mother eagle. “As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreading out her wings, taking them, and carrying them on her wings, So the LORD alone did lead [His people]…”
God is like a mother eagle watching over her young, nurturing and providing for them, teaching them, protecting them. I used to feel strong antipathy for God who I viewed as infinitely cruel and capricious. Though I had read this passage many times, one morning I was arrested as I read. The Spirit spoke into my heart, “Though God is all-powerful, you don’t need to be afraid of Him, for He loves you. Even as you seek to care for your little ones, God cares for you.”
“Though God is all-powerful, you don’t need to be afraid of Him, for He loves you.”
Do You Have a Mother Hole in Your Heart?
Over the years I have experienced God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit filling the empty mother hole in my heart – nurturing me, loving me, disciplining me, guiding me.
What is amazing is God, as a mother, gazes into my eyes and attunes with me. The attachment bond between us is growing ever stronger as His mother’s heart ministers to me in whatever situation I find myself. Hungry and longing for love. Lonely and sad. Grieving. Angry or afraid. The mother heart of God is always towards me – nurturing, shielding, covering, and feeding me.
It all boils down to this. If you miss your mom, or if you never experienced the tender loving kindness of a mother who loved you as you deserve to be loved, or if you are longing for something deeper – everyday provides a fresh opportunity to experience the mother’s heart.
Come to the Lord
Because He suffered, He understands your pain. Allow His mother heart to minister to your wounded heart, embracing and nourishing you, comforting and blessing you. That is His desire – to shower His love upon you and heal your broken heart.
Jesus longed to embrace His people but they wouldn’t allow Him. When you receive a mother wound – it is easy to shut down in your desperate attempt to be safe. Doing that, you close your heart to one who is faithful and true and who seeks to love and encourage you.
Dear Heart,
I pray you will not be like Jerusalem who rejected the love of Christ. He lamented with a broken heart, “How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” (Mathew 27:37 & Luke 13:34)
“Do not neglect your mother’s teaching; for they are a graceful wreath on your head, and beads for your neck.” (Proverbs 1:9b-9)
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (I Peter 4:8)
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:13-14
“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you” (Isa 66:13a)
