God Gave Us Motherhood
Jesus likens Himself to a mother bird protecting her young.
God Gave Us Motherhood
Before we celebrate motherhood today— let’s look at where motherhood comes from.
It reflects something about the very character of God. The Bible generally describes God with fatherly language, but there are times where it uses motherhood, too.
That surprises people, but God created motherhood and the tenderness, protection, care and emotional depth of it. A mother’s love is one of the clearest earthly reflections of divine compassion.
In Isaiah 49:15, God compares His memory and compassion to a mother’s. God chooses the strongest human bond imaginable — a nursing mother and infant — and says that His love is even stronger.
The world struggles to understand God’s love but almost everyone has seen some glimpse of sacrificial maternal care. In those sleepless nights, worry and tenderness, God says: “That instinct to care came from Me.”
In Isaiah 66:13, God comforts like a mother comforting her child. A mom has that unique ability to calm a child’s fear before words are even spoken.
There are times when we need comfort. God comforts the broken with personal tenderness like a mother. Jesus expressed this motherlike compassion when He spoke these words:
Matthew 23:37
“How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…”
Jesus likens Himself to a mother bird protecting her young. Motherhood reveals qualities that are reflections of Christ Himself.
protective sacrifice
emotional investment
suffering for another’s good
So, this Mother’s Day for mothers, people who lost mothers, women without children—in fact, all who are hurting—connect to the character of God being revealed.
A child runs to their mother when hurt—not because the mother is powerful in the world’s eyes, but because the child knows “She loves me.”
That is the Gospel. God doesn’t merely tolerate His children. He wants them near Him.
This Mother’s Day, thank God for faithful mothers, grieve where motherhood has been painful and remember that motherhood is ultimately a shadow of the heart of God.
Because long before there was a mother’s embrace — there was the compassion of God.
