Theologians Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan Shaw describe how the inclusive and nurturing character of a Mothering God can provide comfort, especially for those who are wounded or hurt:
Mothering is something people of all genders can do when they offer love, support, nurturance, and guidance to others. Therefore, simply replacing images of God the Father with God the Mother may be counterproductive. After all, earthly mothers, like earthly fathers, can let us down…. Instead, we see “mothering” as an action rather than a being.
The Mothering God gives birth to us and gives us life. The Mothering God nurtures us and provides shelter when we need it. Luke 13:34 says, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” As a hen gathering her brood, the Mothering God protects us under her wings. When we feel alone and broken, God provides shelter for our brokenness, loss, and suffering. Those who suffer from the effects of sexual violence can turn to the Mothering God to wrap us in her arms to provide everlasting love and support.
In the Hebrew Bible, the Spirit is written in the Hebrew feminine as ruach, who brings forth life in creation (Genesis 1:2). In the New Testament, pneuma is the Greek word for the Spirit who gives forth life…. The Spirit gives life and is the creative and maternal God who brings forth the birth of Jesus and the new members of the body of Christ. The Spirit God moves us away from traditional patriarchal notions about God and moves us toward a wholistic, all-embracing understanding of God. [1]
Karen Baker-Fletcher offers additional maternal metaphors for God in the Hebrew Bible:
Mother metaphors and metaphors for God drawn from nature are present in several passages of Hebrew and Christian scripture…. God is like a mother eagle who catches and bears its young on her large, strong wings until they learn to fly freely on their own (Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11). God labors like a woman in childbirth in God’s love for creation (Isaiah 42:14). In Isaiah 49:15, God is like a mother who cannot forget her children, thus functioning as a model for human motherhood and parenting….
In the book of Exodus and elsewhere, God is El Shaddai, God of the mountain or God Almighty [Genesis 17:1; Exodus 6:3; Job 8:5]…. In the original Hebrew, the phrase simply reads “God of the mountain.” In Hebrew, the word shaddai has more than one meaning. It is also the word for “breast”…. Therefore, El Shaddai is not only as mighty, grand, and awesome as a mountain but as powerfully nurturing, gentle, and loving as a mother’s gift, shared from her bosom. Behind her bosom, lie her heart and lungs—the power of life and breath. God is like a mother. El Shaddai is God of the mountain and God who is like a mother’s bosom, mighty and intimately nurturing at once. [2]
References:
[1] Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan M. Shaw, Surviving God: A New Vision of God Through the Eyes of Sexual Abuse Survivors (Broadleaf, 2024), 116, 117.
[2] Karen Baker-Fletcher, Dancing with God: The Trinity from a Womanist Perspective (Chalice Press, 2006), 58, 59.
Image credit and inspiration: Jyothisha R, woman holds the sun in her hands (detail), 2025, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The strong, soft light of the Divine Feminine is available for us all to touch upon.
Story from Our Community:
I want to share a poem inspired by a painting by Mary Cassatt, called “My Little Meditation—Mother and Child.”
divine feminine offering understanding / a spirit of serenity, knowing, peace, contentment / securely holding preciousness / hands offering strength and foundational belonging / child rests over open heart / finding rest in what is / unity of hearts / completing the circle / of life, growth, struggle, letting go, new life.
—Patricia S.
