By Chris WittsWednesday 5 Apr 2023Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
I have often thought there is nothing like a mother’s love. It’s very special. In fact, it’s powerful and soothing.
Watch a mother care for her little baby son or daughter, and more often than not, you’ll see the tender love and comfort come shining through. And then there is the grandmother’s love for her grandchild. It’s amazing to see. That’s not to say we males can’t express love and tenderness like that also but we probably do it in a different way.
God Is Like a Mother But He Is a Father
We are right to talk of God as a father, for the Bible speaks of him repeatedly as a father. There are no verses in the Bible that say God actually is a mother; however, God is compared to a mother, and he is even likened to a hen brooding over her chicks. Since men and women are both created in the image of God, it should really be no surprise to us that God reflects attributes of mothers as well as fathers in his dealings with us.
English minister Matthew Henry, writing more than 300 years ago, reminds us that God comforts us and he does so “not only with the rational arguments which a prudent father uses, but with the tender affections and compassions of a loving mother.”
Isaiah says, “As a mother comforts her child, so I’ll comfort you.” (Isaiah 66:13 – The Message)
Isaiah also says, “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.” (Isaiah 49:15-16 – NLT)
In Luke, Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! 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.” (Luke 13:34 – NLT)
Psalm 131, David’s brief Psalm, says, “Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.” Psalm 131:2 – NLT)
God Is Compassionate Like a Mother
I’m generalising but women tend to be compassionate, whereas men are more practical. We ask, What happened? How did the child get hurt?, Where is the bruise?, Was one of the other children somehow responsible? These are the kind of things men would ask; mum instead usually says, Please, just pick them up and give them a cuddle.
God created the world. Is it any wonder he should feel the same intense degree of warm love and care towards his children that a mother so clearly demonstrates to hers?
In one of the Bible verses God says in effect, No way would a woman reject her own baby. Of course, we cannot generalise on that—then as now, sadly there are a few women who do indeed forget the child they bore. But God is actually there as one who never forgets! Why? Because of what happened on the cross when he “engraved our names on his hands.”
And I think we can probably say that when Jesus went to Calvary he thought of us—he loved us so much. So yes, God is compassionate like a mother.
(To be continued in God – Like a Comforting Mother – Part 2)