Bible study shows that God does not always have to be defined as masculine

AS I have reflected, throughout this season of Lent, names matter. This weekend one name matters above all others, that of mother (or mum, mummy, ma, whatever name you choose to use).

There will be special meals, gifts and hand-made cards. Some of us, whose mothers are no longer with us, will take time to reflect and be thankful for all that these special people gave us.

Sadly, too, some will be estranged for reasons too complicated for others to understand and this weekend will be especially difficult. Yet even in that difficulty there is the yearning to know something of the motherly love that others will be celebrating.

We are used to referring to God as “He” or “Father”. Indeed, Jesus encouraged those who wanted to draw close to God to begin our prayers with “Our Father”. It is a surprise, then, to realise that throughout the Bible there are references to God in female, motherly terms.

God is the one who “gives birth” to the Israelites and Hosea speaks of God carrying out the role with small children that we often attribute to human mothers. The prophet Isaiah tells us of a God who, like a mother who loves the child she nurses, loves people and will not forget them (any more than a mother would forget her children).

There are images of God as a protective bear or eagle – but female. Even Jesus draws a picture of God as a hen whose desire is to gather their children under the shelter of her wings.

The reality is that God who created the world made people, both male and female, in his/her image and we should not be surprised to find, in the qualities we admire and are thankful for in our own mothers, reflections of the character of God.

Whether we mark this weekend with daffodils of gratitude or tears for what we have lost, let us not lose sight that the God who made us and loves us can be all that we would long to find in a father and a mother and promises to be with us always.