Mother

God walks in the door after midnight, after working a PM shift at the hospital, and I don’t greet her. I don’t even let her put her bags down or take her coat off before I say, “Ok, I did something really stupid.” Without batting an eyelash God replies, “It’s ok. Whatever you did, we can work through it,” and her grace washes me with instant relief and comfort.

It is so important to see God in the many ways the Bible tells us God shows up: as women, as animals, as a stranger, or as a PM shift nurse. The mainstream interpretation of God tells us that God is a man, the Father. This singular interpretation of God makes Christianity very inaccessible for many people. I can say that if I had to believe in only God the Father, I could not do it. If God is Father, then God is absent and breaks the promises he makes to be present, but if God is Mother, I know that God comforts me the way my mother comforts me.

Depending on the day, I see God as Morgan Freeman because of the movie Evan Almighty. Sometimes God is Te Fiti, the fictional green goddess from Moana. Most days, God is a woman, a strong, sassy, compassionate, fiercely loyal, and extremely loving mother. How are you challenging yourself to read scripture and see God differently? How have you experienced God in unexpected people and places?

Mothering God, I pray for all the women who embody your comfort. I pray for mothers, aunties, grandmothers, those who wish to become mothers, and all those who nurture and care for people in motherly ways. Amen.

Claire Embil, LCM Student

As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

-Isaiah 66:13