Motherhood as metaphor

Because the Lord knows our frame and remembers that we are dust, He has so kindly filled His Word with images and pictures to help our small minds grasp vast realities. Jesus’ parables, many proverbs, and much of the Prophets’ writings exemplify this merciful condescension. I remember appreciating God’s use of metaphor as I approached marriage. As I reflected on the feelings, desires, longings, and activities that filled my time of engagement, I understood in a new way how we are called to long for Christ our Bridegroom and the joy that will be ours at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

The experience of motherhood offers a similar opportunity to experience in fresh ways many truths that God longs for us to understand and believe. What follows is a collection of moments that will become a familiar part of your life as a mother. I pray that by singling out these experiences in this way, God will prepare and enable your heart to recognize the spiritual treasures He wants to give you as you walk through them yourself. May He bring these Scriptures to mind as you go about your tasks as mother and may the remembrance of what God wants to teach you deepen and transform your experience of each activity.

The groaning of labor pains

John 16:21-22
“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

Galatians 4:19
“My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!”

Nursing

Isaiah 49:15
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”

1 Thessalonians 2:7
“But we were gentle among you,

like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.”

1 Peter 2:2
“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk,

that by it you may grow up into salvation.”

Caring for small children

Isaiah 66:13
“As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you;

and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

Psalm 131:2
“But I have stilled and quieted my soul;

like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

Hosea 11:1-4
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son…

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms;

but they did not realize it was I who healed them.

I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love;

I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.

Discipline

Hebrews 12:9-10
“Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best;

but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”