Article October 19, 1992 Issue

Healing and God's motherhood

We can never really be separated from the mothering qualities that assure us of God's love and care.

Diane Ethel Witters

In a recent film I saw a mother wolf caring for her pups. Her unselfishness and alertness to the young wolves' needs were beautiful to me. As summer was overtaken by the first fall snows, she curled up close to the pups to keep them warm. She brought fresh food into the den for their meals. And during their exploratory romps outside, she kept a watchful eye on them. To me, the wolf was expressing qualities that have their origin in God as Mother as well as Father.

This passage from Deuteronomy in the Bible certainly points to the mothering aspect of the divine nature: "The Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land ...; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him ...."

Because God is infinite good, it's reasonable to believe that every evidence of pure good originates in Him. This includes the qualities we often associate with motherhood, such as constancy, tenderness, vilgilance, patient nurturing, and selfless love. Such reasoning leads to the tremendously comforting realization that there is no need which cannot be supplied by God's all-powerful, complete, ever-sheltering nature.

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