I made a serious faux pas in the opening line of my first ever sermon.
I was a fresh-faced 24-year-old Bible college student trying to reference something said earlier in the church service. But instead of being witty I accidentally used an inopportune word with multiple meanings that brought the house down.
They asked me back to speak via video on Mother’s Day last weekend and in doing so I encountered an aspect of God’s nature I hadn’t really engaged with before and which has impacted me deeply.
I’ve been learning lately how God’s nature is multi-faceted, like a disco ball, and so the Bible is full of different images conveying God’s nature. It can be easy to focus on just a few like father, lord, and saviour, but I am finding that when we limit the images of God we engage with we end up with an impoverished relationship with God.
One important image I had overlooked is that of mother.
As I looked into it, I discovered this imagery runs all through the Bible:
- Deuteronomy 32:18 – “the God who gave you birth”
- Psalm 131:2 – refers to God as the mother of a weaned child who has learned to be trustingly content in her presence
- Isaiah 42:14 – presents God as a woman in childbirth, crying out, gasping and panting
- Isaiah 66:13 – talks about God bringing comfort as a mother comforts her children
- John 3:3-10, James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:3 and 1 John 4:7 – talk about being born of God
And in Matthew 23:37 (and Luke 13:34) Jesus describes himself as a mother hen!
Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who you kill the prophets
and stone those sent to you,
how often have I longed
to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings
and you were not willing.
I love what this image reveals about God’s nature and what God longs to give us.
The first is comfort.
The outstretched wings of a mother hen nurture and comfort her chicks. Under her wings is where her chicks are safe and warm, right next to her heart; where they experience her gentleness and tender compassion. It is where those who feel vulnerable and afraid are cared for.
How beautiful that God has a soft, motherly side! To me there is something so appealing about a God who longs to comfort us like that.
The second is safety.
Ever snuggled into someone’s arms and felt the peace and rest that comes with knowing someone stronger than you has got you?
The heart of the mother hen is always to protect her chicks from anything that might snatch away their life. She is so committed to the lives of her chicks that she would even give up her own life to keep them safe under her wings. No questions asked. It’s who she is. It’s her nature.
It’s God’s nature, too.
It is no coincidence Jesus uses this image towards the end of his life. He would rather give up his own life than have us lose ours.
The arms of Jesus Christ stretched out as he died on the cross are the wings of mother-hen God outstretched for us to come and find comfort and safety in them.
It is a deep relief to my soul that I don’t need to carry the weight of looking after my own comfort and safety – whether that’s seeking comfort through pizza or chocolate, or seeking safety through avoidance, people-pleasing or over-thinking.
This is the beauty of the image of God as a mother hen. It is a beautiful access point for us to snuggle in and find the safety and comfort we expend so much energy looking for elsewhere.
So come with me. Let’s settle in. Let’s find rest.
