by Pastor Steve Ellison
As I write this, four days before Mother’s Day, I am praying that you are making plans to attend a Bible-believing, Christ-exalting church with your mother. I also hope you are spending some time thinking about mothers in general and specifically about your mother. Isaiah 66:13 says, “As one whom his mother comforts, So I will comfort you; And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” (NASU) If God Himself uses the idea of motherhood to illustrate His perfect, unfailing love for us, we can safely assume that there is no better picture of love in all the world. No one comforts like Mom comforts. When a little one has a skinned knee or hurt feelings, who do they run to? They run to Mom. Society may tell us differently, but children need both a Mom and a Dad. Children need a Dad who will tell them to toughen up, but they also need a Mom who will be soft, gentle, and tender. Dad may help them to prepare for the next hurt coming their way, but Mom will dry the tears and soothe the present hurt. A wise second grader once said, “Moms make you feel better without medicine”. True.
Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2:7, But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. (NASU) A nursing mother provides for her children. She nurtures her children, not just with milk, but also with intellectual and spiritual food. A mother is naturally protective over her children. A mother is gentle and tender, loving with a deep affection that is easily recognized by all. Another wise second grader said, “God gave me to my Mom because she loves me a lot more than other people’s mothers love me”. Very true! Mothers love their children like no one else. God’s view of motherhood is exalted indeed. He places a great importance on motherhood. The Bible is full of stories about mothers, their trials, tribulations, and triumphs. God uses mothers to teach us much about His love.
My favorite reference to motherhood in the Bible is the picture of motherhood embedded in the Passover. In Exodus 12, many see the death angel “passing over” the houses of the Hebrew slaves living in Egypt. In a sense, that is certainly true. The death angel did not touch those inside the Hebrew houses of which the owners had obediently placed the blood of the sacrificial lamb on the doorframes. However, the context and grammar of Exodus 12 really picture God Himself covering those homes by “passing over” them as a protection against the enemy of death. The death angel “passed over” those homes because God first “passed over” in protection of those homes. The original language suggests a mother hen passing her wings over her helpless chicks in gathering them to herself to protect them from danger.
You and I are certainly helpless in every regard, but especially and certainly helpless against the enemy of death. Death is no respecter of persons. Death comes for every person. Aren’t you glad that because of your faith in Him, God passes His wings over you to protect you from the certain, everlasting death that awaits you? In Luke 13:34 Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!” (NASU) A baby chick can run out from under the hen’s wings and you can run out from under God’s protective wings, but please do not.
