Medical Mondays: God is Like a Mom?

When you were a child and feel and scraped your knee, who did you run to? When you got sick, who did you call for?

Dad may bandage us up, give us a hug and send us on our way. But Mom, the nurturer, sat by our sides through long, miserable nights of sickness. She wiped sweaty brows, held our hair back when we were throwing up, sat beside us if there was nothing else she could do and suffered with us. Mom brought us popsicles and cooked us soup. She held us.

It's interesting to me that though God calls Himself our Father and refers to His fatherly attributes in many places in the Bible, He also has attributes (and ones He's not embarrassed about!) like a mother.

I dug into this because a friend mentioned she wished God was not just like a father but like a mother too. I knew I remembered a couple of places in the Bible where He was, and as I began looking those up, I found a few more.

This had been a blessing to me as I am sick. I'm the mom myself now. I'm the one expected (and gifted) to have my heart tugging toward a child who is needing me. I'm the one who sits beside sick little ones and wipes their brows and takes their temperature and hovers over them, wanting to be sure they are safe and cared for.

With Hope, our little miracle baby.

Now, when I am sick, who watches over me? My husband is wonderful, but he can't be there as often as I'd like. He has to work and support our family.

What a comfort to know that God has a nurturing feeling toward me! His heart hurts when I hurt, just as mine does for my children. He is with me, by my side, during those sick days.

Here's how I know this:

As one whom his mother comforts,
So I will comfort you. Isaiah 66:13

How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Matthew 23:37

Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands. Isaiah 49:15-16

The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

That last verse is my favorite. It changed the way I saw God. Once I had children, I remember being up in the middle of the night, totally exhausted, spending my time and energy all for these babies who had done nothing for me, who demanded from me all day long and never said thank you. It didn't matter. I rocked those tiny ones and sang over them because they were mine. They were my children and I loved them more than my own life.

And that is how God loves me? It is unfathomable, but true. Not because of all I've done for Him, but because I am His. He sings over me. He loved me more than His own life.

Next time you are sick and longing for the old days when someone would watch over you with a nurturing heart, go to this verse. You are being watched over. You are being cared for. He is with you each moment.

If you are His child, He sings over you. You are not alone.