Clifton College Website
Mother God
In his 2007 bestselling novel, The Shack, Wm Paul Young portrays God the Father as a large, ebullient African-American woman! This may not be as unusual as it at first appears – one of the most fascinating Biblical images of God is of a Mother bird.
The Psalmist prays, “Hide me in the shadow of your wings,” (Psalm 17.8) and he also reassures his readers that God will, “Cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.” (Psalm 91.4) Lamenting over Jerusalem, Jesus declared, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” (St Matthew 23.37)
In the week of Mothering Sunday it could be helpful to reflect on how the image of God as a Mother touches those parts of our souls which other images cannot reach!
19 March 2012
© 2006-12 Clifton College