Some of you may not know that when I was a little baby I lost my mom most likely due to suicide. Having three children under the age of five and a son who only lived twenty four hours, she had post pardum depression and was found floating dead in the creek outside my garndmother's house at the age of twenty seven. I was told when I was a child that it was most likely suicide and not an accidental slip that cuased her death. Over the years my aunts have argued as to whether or not her death was a suicide but in any case I didn't have a mom growing up. My dad was an absentee father. he worked on the tugs in NYC and when he was home he would drink a lot.
I share this so you will understand how I came to discover a very important aspect about Christ. When I decided that I wanted to know the Lord in a more personal way one of the things I began to experience is the "mothering" of Christ. I had always denied the imporatnce of having a mother. I concluded I didn't miss what I never had. I didn't understand the importance of bonding, touch and affection that a mother gives to her child. But before I go on I would like to point out scripturally that Christ does have motherly attributes.
Jesus our Mother.
Here's a few scriptures to think about. (Sorry I can't give you the exact verses, just the whereabouts.)
1.) From Jeremiah "Can a woman forget her nursing child or fail to have compassion upon it? She may forget but no will I not. Israel you are always before Me."
In Isaiah: 'Your mother and father may forsake you but I will not."
Jesus in the Gospels "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often have I longed to gather you as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings."
From these few scrptures we see that Christ loves us with a love likened to a father and a mother. A father's love is strong and protecting. The same can be said of a mother's love but even more so a mother has nourishing qualties. This is what I want to address: how Jesus loves us like a mother and why it is important in relation to our Vine-Life with Jesus.
Perhaps this will be a new vision for some, seeing Jesus as our mother. I think we will be greatly encouraged as we meditate on how Jesus keeps us and how close we actually are to Him.
Now let's watch how this beautiful truth unfolds. Didn't He know you and I before we were ever born? Even in Genesis when Adam and Eve had fallen the plan of salvation was already set in motion. We know from Psalms that David said all our days have been alotted to us and that we were fearfully and wonderfully made. God had knit us together in our mother's womb.
Imagine a good mother-to-be being told she was pregnant. What joy she has in knowing that soon she will bear a child! What a precious secret between her and her unborn child in that she alone knows what it feels like to carry that child, to know the movements and growth of the little one, and the child knows the mother more than anyone else. Not even her husband can experience this deep bond between mother and child. The child utterly depends on the mother for everything.
So how does this tie into Jesus? How can we find Jesus in this picture? I'll talk more about it tomorrow. In the mean time let's rejoice that we His!
__________________
I share this so you will understand how I came to discover a very important aspect about Christ. When I decided that I wanted to know the Lord in a more personal way one of the things I began to experience is the "mothering" of Christ. I had always denied the imporatnce of having a mother. I concluded I didn't miss what I never had. I didn't understand the importance of bonding, touch and affection that a mother gives to her child. But before I go on I would like to point out scripturally that Christ does have motherly attributes.
Jesus our Mother.
Here's a few scriptures to think about. (Sorry I can't give you the exact verses, just the whereabouts.)
1.) From Jeremiah "Can a woman forget her nursing child or fail to have compassion upon it? She may forget but no will I not. Israel you are always before Me."
In Isaiah: 'Your mother and father may forsake you but I will not."
Jesus in the Gospels "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often have I longed to gather you as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings."
From these few scrptures we see that Christ loves us with a love likened to a father and a mother. A father's love is strong and protecting. The same can be said of a mother's love but even more so a mother has nourishing qualties. This is what I want to address: how Jesus loves us like a mother and why it is important in relation to our Vine-Life with Jesus.
Perhaps this will be a new vision for some, seeing Jesus as our mother. I think we will be greatly encouraged as we meditate on how Jesus keeps us and how close we actually are to Him.
Now let's watch how this beautiful truth unfolds. Didn't He know you and I before we were ever born? Even in Genesis when Adam and Eve had fallen the plan of salvation was already set in motion. We know from Psalms that David said all our days have been alotted to us and that we were fearfully and wonderfully made. God had knit us together in our mother's womb.
Imagine a good mother-to-be being told she was pregnant. What joy she has in knowing that soon she will bear a child! What a precious secret between her and her unborn child in that she alone knows what it feels like to carry that child, to know the movements and growth of the little one, and the child knows the mother more than anyone else. Not even her husband can experience this deep bond between mother and child. The child utterly depends on the mother for everything.
So how does this tie into Jesus? How can we find Jesus in this picture? I'll talk more about it tomorrow. In the mean time let's rejoice that we His!
__________________
