5/12/2024
Proverbs 31:28:
“Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.”
Today is Mother’s Day – a day on which we celebrate and honor motherhood and our earthly mothers for bringing us into this world, loving us, sharing their hearts with us, nurturing us, inspiring us, and then sending us on our way to establish our own life. Whether by birth or other means, today we give thanks to these special people who have revealed God’s guiding light and have always done what they thought was best for us.
In the Bible, a good mother exemplifies selflessness, compassion, and wisdom. She is seen as a nurturer who provides love, guidance, and protection to her children. Bible scriptures speak highly of mothers and the important role they play in families and society. Proverbs 31:26-27 say, “She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” This passage describes the ideal woman, often interpreted as a mother figure who is wise, diligent, and caring for her family.
If we are here today, we have our mother partly to thank for this miracle. Some of our mothers are still in their bodies; others have moved on to pure spirit. Our love and appreciation do not change. Kind, warm, loving, and appreciative thoughts will always reach those on the other side of the veil.
Within our hearts we know motherhood as nurturing, caregiving, protection, and unconditional love, and its manifestation is as diverse as life itself. Today, in same-sex couples, one or both partners may embody the motherhood archetype, demonstrating that this quality of motherhood is not limited by gender.
Many working mothers balance their professional responsibilities with their role as a mother, embodying the strength and resilience of the motherhood archetype. Single mothers often embody the motherhood standards in their most potent form, taking on the role of both parents and showcasing the mothering traits of persistence, strength, and single-mindedness. In truth, the mothering attitude can be expressed by any family member who provides nurturing and care.
We must concede that not all mothers in the world have done a great job by some standards; perhaps, many were burdened in ways that prevented them from providing all the emotional support they or we would have liked. Still, they did a sufficient job. Since we are here, God wanted us to be here, and our mother was the vehicle to make that happen…and of course next month we honor the other half of that miracle.
There are wonderful dualities that we must embrace as we move through our lives: our human nature and our spiritual nature; our divine masculine natures – the Father within, and our Divine Feminine natures – just to name two of the many dichotomies that we are and that we experience.
Although it is not Biblical to refer to God as our Divine Mother, it makes sense to me to do so. Everything in the Bible may be true, but not everything true is in the Bible. So, although some truths are not stated in the Bible overtly, there are references that bring that truth into focus.
I believe that about the Divine Mother description. Because we are a child of God, we are each an amalgamation of Spirit, which is an un-gendered essence, neither masculine nor feminine, within a gendered physical form. The feminine nature is characterized by gentleness and a nurturing embrace of all life. The Bible makes references to these motherly qualities.
In Isaiah 66:13 we are told: “As a mother comforts her child — so will I comfort you….” A mother watches over and defends her child, as does God. A mother is concerned about caring and providing for her child as is God. In Isaiah 49:13 we read, “God comforts His children with all the forgiveness and consolation of a mother. How ready is she to forgive her erring, wandering child – and how ready to console in times of trouble.”
1 Kings 3:26-27 recounts the story of two women disputing the kinship of an infant before King Solomon: The actual mother of the child was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, "Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don't kill him!" But the other said, "Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!" Then the king gave his ruling: "Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother."
This is unconditional selfless love: wanting no harm to her son, the true mother is willing to do anything – even give up her child – to protect him from harm. This is how God loves us and is why I identify that aspect of God in my invocations to prayer: Heavenly Father, Divine Mother. The Divine Mother aspect of God is willing to “give us up” as we demand our independence and let our ego have its way. But She is always there loving us, protecting us, picking us up when we fall, and always awaiting our return to her warm embrace.
Although the Bible does not refer to God as “Mother”, there are certainly feminine/motherly qualities that describe God. Dr. Ernest Holmes refers to this feminine nature of God as the Universal Womb of Nature. It is that omnipresent nature of God that sustains Creation, nurtures all living things without exclusion. Our divine feminine is most succinctly characterized by unconditional love.
Jesus loved and honored his mother. He also identified the spiritual mother characteristics within himself and others. In Matthew12:48-50 when told that his mother and brothers were outside wanting to speak with him, he replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” This is not an affront to his physical mother, but rather a recognition of the complex and intimate inner relationship with Spirit.
It is sometimes easier for me personally to feel God’s presence in the form of the Divine Mother than as a Heavenly Father. We realize that God is spirit and is neither masculine nor feminine, and often when I sit quietly, I will gently call to the Divine Mother and get a response through a feeling of joy, a tickle in my abdomen or tingle of energy up my spine. That is my clue that the Divine Mother nature is making Herself known.
So, today, whether they are still in bodies or in pure spirit, we give thanks to our own physical Mother who brought us into this world. Call her Mom, Mother, Mummy, Mommy, Momma, or as our daughter Rebecca, when in middle school, referred to Mary as her biological female parental unit, the love is the same; our appreciation is the same.
We also thank and honor all the women who have nurtured any child of God, whether they have been grandmothers, aunts, sisters, teachers, coworkers, friends, or strangers. We honor and give thanks to the entire spectrum of motherhood, as well as to the Divine Mother nature of God within us that whispers support and love to our hearts, that nurtures us, and expresses through us to others as giving, sharing, compassion, and love.
Thank You God, for the love of Mothers. Happy Mother’s Day.
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