The Maternal-ness of God

“Is God a man or a woman?” my nephew asked.

He was only three. He was looking for categories.

We need categories.

God made us that way. We don’t just need order. We crave order.

However.

God is not a man

God is not a woman.

But, He became a man.

That was born of a woman.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” – Genesis 1:27 (emphasis mine)

The Trinity is not easy to explain. Especially not to a three-year-old.

But, there is something concrete, something every child can understand about the Triune God in the creation of male and female.

God relates to us like a father.

God relates to us like a mother.

I left out the “also” in the above statement because there is no also in God’s nature. There is no ‘B’ list of divine attributes.

I leave it to you to consider the maternal characteristics of the indivisible Triune God in the following verses. And, I leave it to the Holy Spirit to tenderly apply their wisdom, goodness and beauty to your heart.

As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. – Isaiah 66:13

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. – Isaiah 49:15

Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions. – Deut. 32:11

I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open. – Hosea 13:8

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! – Luke 13:34