Article May 18, 2009 Issue

GOD as FATHER-MOTHER

BY MARK SWINNEY

I DON'T THINK THERE'S ANYTHING MORE ENRICHING than being a parent to children—either your own, or children from other families. Parenting brings joy, and I've found it also helps smooth the rough edges off a person! Bringing up children is a huge task, but one that is enriched by an understanding of God as the true Parent, the one Creator—of everyone. The emanation of God's nature in each of us, moment by moment, shapes our spiritual individualities.

This explains why Jesus said, "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven" (Matt. 23:9). The Bible shows that although Jesus loved his parents, Joseph and Mary, he never doubted that God was his true Parent, and the source of all the good that came into his life, which he shared with others. Jesus' tender love for God prompted him to address Him as Abba, the Aramaic word for Father.

In the first chapter of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy referred to God as Father-Mother. And on page 16, she gave a spiritual interpretation of Jesus' best-known prayer, which begins in this way: