Editorial May 7, 2018 ISSUE

Never separated from God’s mothering love

Kim Crooks Korinek

Coming into motherhood, I felt humbled watching the tender and trusting dependence of a little child on his mother. It gave me a profound sense of the dependence we all have on God as our heavenly Parent. I knew I would be relying on God to help me navigate parenting and all its obligations to wisely guide the budding thought of children. Studying the Bible and the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, I learned to see God as Mother as well as Father. This more expansive view of God’s nature helped me understand that we are all children of Spirit, God, with a spiritual identity reflecting infinite variety and color—the full spectrum of God’s masculine and feminine qualities.

And then, as a new mother, this more spiritual view of motherhood became a practical model for me. The Bible describes God’s constant and tenacious mothering love in many ways, such as this from Deuteronomy: “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” (32:11, 12). I was learning that God’s motherhood includes not only the feminine qualities of tenderness, protection, and compassion, but also the masculine qualities of wisdom, strength, and guidance. And I saw clearly the truth of this statement from Science and Health: “A mother’s affection cannot be weaned from her child, because the mother-love includes purity and constancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal affection lives on under whatever difficulties” (p. 60).

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