God's Tender Love: What Mothering Sunday Teaches Us About How God Sees Us

Does the Bible Use Feminine Images for God?

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast…Though she may forget, I will not forget you.!" — Isaiah 49 v 15

This week we take a short break from our series on fasting to mark Mothering Sunday.

I wonder what image you have in your mind when you think of God? The Bible teaches us to call God 'Father' and Jesus was clearly a man. So, perhaps it is easy to think of God as male. However, on occasions God also uses feminine language to describe himself in Scripture and we can learn much from these beautiful images. Let me briefly share my two favourite examples.

A Mother Who Never Forgets: God's Love in Isaiah 49

First, in Isaiah 49 v 15-16, God compares his love for us to that of a breast-feeding mother. At the time the people of Israel were feeling like God had forgotten them, maybe even abandoned them, because they were suffering at the hands of their enemies. Perhaps we sometimes feel like that as we struggle with the challenges of life? So, God tells his downtrodden and beleaguered people that his love for them (and us) is even more steadfast and constant than that of a mother for her baby. It is almost unthinkable that a mother would forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on her, but even if that were to happen, God promises never to forget us.

Engraved on His Hands: The Promise Fulfilled at the Cross

In fact, God says that he has engraved us on the palms of his hands (Isaiah 49 v 16) – surely a reference to Jesus whose love for us took him all the way to the cross and who still now bears the nail marks on his hands as a constant reminder of the depth, height, breadth and length of his tender love for you and me.

A Hen and Her Chicks: Jesus the Protector in Matthew 23

Second, in Matthew 23 v 17 Jesus compares himself to a mother hen longing to gather her chicks under her protective wings. I remember some years ago visiting a farm and seeing a hen sitting at the back of her coop and as I watched slowly but surely lots of little chicks began to pop their heads out from under her wings. She had gathered them to herself to keep them safe from harm. What a beautiful image of the protective love of Jesus for us.

Why Jesus Wept — and What It Means for Us Today

Sadly, Jesus laments with tears that Israel had failed to come to him for safety and would therefore be exposed to spiritual and physical danger. Let us not follow their example but let us run to Jesus and find all that we need in our strong and gracious mother hen!

Mothering Sunday: Giving Thanks for Mothers and for God's Faithful Love

So, on this Mothering Sunday, as we give thanks to God for the blessing of mothers and motherhood, let us also rejoice in the tender love of our faithful God who loves us more than we can ever imagine.

Every blessing.