God as Mother

It is by the kindness of Jehovah that we are not destroyed for His mercies never fail. Lamentations 3:22

Mercy – Gender sensitivity did not begin in the Twentieth Century. It began when God created us male and female. The Bible is very specific about this connection. Genesis 1:26 tells us that God said, “Let’s make Man in Our image” upon which God made Man male and female. Now that is very interesting. In spite of the predominant assumption that God is described as male, the Bible contains an equally important theme that describes God as female. And this is exactly what we should expect. After all, if God created Man according to “our” image and the result was both male and female human beings, we should never have assumed that God’s image was only to be found in one of the two sexes.

So, now we come upon this important Hebrew word, raham (pronounced with the hard “h” sound like “ach”). This is the word for compassion. It means, “to have mercy, to find mercy, to be compassionate”. Most importantly, it is the first word of God’s self-definition (Exodus 34:6). No characterization of God without a very strong dose of compassion comes close to the true nature of the God of the Bible.

But there is another word. Spelled exactly the same way in Hebrew, this word raham means the physical womb, the seat of tender emotions. You can see how it is used in Genesis 43:30 where it describes Joseph’s reaction to the encounter with Benjamin (literally, he is overwhelmed with “wombs”). At the heart of God is the feminine characteristic of deep tenderness and compassion. God is not simply the male warrior figure, the male sovereign image and the male judge of all mankind. God is the female mother of each of us, the tenderhearted, nurturing, sacrificing provider, giving us birth and life from within. Without God as Mother, we have only half the picture.

Followers in the Way have recently rediscovered the vital link between head and heart. This link is not new to God. It’s been there since the creation. We got lost in our patriarchal preoccupation. Now it’s time to recover our true constitution. If we are to be like God, we will have to learn that compassion and discipline go hand-in-hand.

Where your life is void of compassion, you are but half the person God intended.