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Although in the Bible the strong emphasis
is on God as Father, yet in the Hebrew of the Old Testament (where they had a
number of different names for God), one of the names is El Shaddai. According
to Scofield's Reference Bible, El means strong and Shaddai means the breasted,
the nourisher or satisfier, the giver of fruitfulness. That emphasizes God as
Mother. The first occurrence in the Bible of this name for God, translated in
our versions as Almighty God, is in Genesis where Abraham is promised "I will
make thee exceeding fruitful' (17:6).
Since God is Mother and we reflect God,
then we need to be mothers, to conceive and give birth to our divinity. We need
to nourish the sense of our true self, to help it to grow, to be patient with
it as a mother is. So often there seems to be an unloved self within the
individual.
Some people think of themselves as
unworthy or that it is improper to love themselves. Nobody wants to love a mere
mortal self, of course, but why do we not love our divine self? We are like a
child crying to be picked up and loved. Instead of nursing morbid thoughts
about our failures, or nursing some resentment about something that was a
disappointment or something that has gone wrong - which only builds up a
rebellious state of thought and rebellious cells in the body - let us mother
and love our true selves. If you have a dog or a cat that misbehaves, you do
not usually beat it. You speak to it lovingly but firmly. Why do we not do the
same to ourselves? We don't though, we make a mistake and say "Damn it, I am a
fool." All to no avail. Let us get into the habit of loving our unique worth as
a God-idea. Then we have a sense of serenity that God's love is shining upon us
whether endeth rain on the just and on the unjust (Matt 5:45). Love loves us
unconditionally. That is the great term-unconditional love. Then we find that
every cell, every fibre of our being, is alive with God and thrives under God's
love. That is El Shaddai, God as Mother" How often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings" (Matt
23:37).'God is our refuge and strength [our Mother and our Father], a very
present help in trouble" (Ps 46:1).
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Published by
Elmdon
Publications
Elmdon, Saffron Walden, Essex, England
1989
In
association with Christian Science Foundation, England |
