Like a Mother

Like a Mother

Augustine of Hippo's mother Monica prayed for him for thirty-two years. She was, in many respects, the human agent of his salvation — her prayers, her tears, her persistent love. After his conversion she said: 'I have nothing more to wish for in this life. I have seen you become God's servant.' She died shortly afterward, at peace. Augustine dedicated a portion of his Confessions to describing her faith and how it had shaped him. He wrote: 'You made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in You.' But beneath those famous words is the acknowledgment: my mother's love for me was the most tangible form of God's love I ever received.

The Bible applies maternal metaphors to God more than most people realize. Isaiah 66:13, Isaiah 49:15 ('Can a mother forget her nursing child?'), Psalm 131:2 (a weaned child with its mother). God uses the mother metaphor deliberately — the most instinctive, protective, nurturing form of human love — to describe the quality of His care for His people. On this Mother's Day week, we honor both the mothers who have reflected this love to their children, and the God who is the origin of all maternal love. Whether or not you have experienced a mother's love consistently, the God who invented it is offering it to you directly — the comfort, the security, the fierce protective tenderness of a mother who will not forget her child.