God is revealed in Scripture not only as a father but also as a mother.
How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. - Jesus, Matthew 23:37
He longs to show us affection, to comfort us when
we suffer and grieve, to care for us, and tend to our wounds. To me this sounds like the heart of a kind and nurturing mother! We bear the image of God when we protect, provide, comfort, and care.
We mother by nurturing. The word nurture shares the same root word as nurse.
El Shaddai means “the strong-breasted One.” El Shaddai describes the Mother Heart of God, who longs to embrace, nurture, and nourish us.
Consider beyond the biological sense what it means ‘to mother’: give birth to, produce, bear, bring forth, nurture, raise, protect, tend, nurse, rear, care for, cherish. Women mother in so many beautiful and brilliant ways! Who has mothered you?
