Tuesday, March 1st, 2011click here for past entriesSafe in God’s Womb
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you,” says the Lord (Isa. 49:15).
One day I was reading part of Martin Luther’s “Lectures on Isaiah” and discovered an amazing thing. I’d like to share it with you here:
Here you see the comparison. How could God speak more sweetly than in transferring a mother’s experiences to Himself, and the most concerned experience is carrying a child in the womb. The highest honour should be given to her who is pregnant. Here consider God’s zeal and care for us. Is not the maternal instinct constantly concerned about the infant? So God cares for us with an everlasting maternal heart and feeling…. The fetus knows no concern. All the concern is in the mother, who looks after her tender belly. So God is likewise concerned for us. Therefore He wants to say: ‘Leave your cares, which look for ways of escape and other places of refuge. Come to Me, I will carry you in My womb.’ The uterus and womb of God is the divine Word, by which we are fashioned and borne, as Paul says to the Galatians [4:19], ‘My little children, with whom I am again in childbirth until Christ be formed in you!’ … It is an outstanding and very firm comfort for the godly that God cares for us. Therefore we must strive with a single heart that we abide in the Word. The Lord will reject no one, however weak, if only we cling to the Word, the womb of God. Thus, then, we must believe in our weakness that we are borne in the womb of God, who will care for us with supreme devotion and will never reject us…. These are supreme consolations. They should be written in golden letters. Let us just cling to the Word alone, and we shall have God as a mother who feeds us and carries us and frees us from all evils.”
Part of the reason that I find this so amazing is that Luther was writing in the 16th century! Yet, he had no problem writing about God our Father who also carries us in his (or her?) womb like a mother. And what a way to picture ourselves – in God’s womb!
While some might get all hung up on whether God is male or female, I have always maintained that God is neither. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (Jn. 4:24). We are also told right from the beginning in Genesis that both male and female are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27).
However, at least in English, our pronouns are either masculine or feminine – not neuter like in certain other languages – and so, we usually need to pick one when referring to God. In Jesus’ case, he referred to God as Abba – Daddy! It is a reflection of the closeness and intimacy of the relationship between Jesus the Son and God the Creator and Father.
There continues to be no doubt that the God of the Scriptures is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However, there are also many passages, like this one from Isaiah, that reveal God’s feminine side as well. In the end, our language will always be inadequate in capturing the fullness of who God is. So, let’s stretch our imagination a bit with Luther, and find ourselves safe in God’s womb. J
In Christ,
Pastor Lynne Hutchison
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