In many Christian churches, we do not spend much time imagining God as our mother. We spend plenty of time praying to God as our father, and for a good number of folk, this familiar name is satisfactory.
Yet I wonder if mothers – of whatever kind – would benefit at least sometimes from a God who is our mother, too? A mother who holds us in all our messy, imperfect mothering and loves us still. A mother who births us and feeds us and nurtures us in a way to human mother (ourselves included) ever can. If we pray to a God who is not only like a father, but also like a mother, perhaps we can learn to give ourselves and the other mothers in our lives a little more grace. Perhaps we can let go of the Christ-like expectations we put on mothers – others and ourselves. Perhaps we can let God in Christ be Savior and Mother to us, who are only and always human.
This message is excerpted from “The mess of mothering” by Miriam Schmidt in the May 2016 Gather magazine. Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter. Today is Mother’s Day.
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