Invincible motherhood

It doesn't take much research to see a revolution taking place. Directly or indirectly the concept of motherhood is part of equal rights deliberations and the abortion controversy; it is at issue in the tragedies of battered spouses, questions of child custody, government subsidy of day care and dependent children, even sex education in the schools.

The recolution is not excusively for women, either. Machoism, changing sex roles, and male liberation involve the question of motherhood too. The narrow definition -- the almost entirely biological framework that many see as motherhood -- is being challenged. Can't men in many ways be mothers too?

The impartiality of motherhood can be seen when we realize that genuine motherhood has a spiritual origin.

It was argued more than a century ago by the woman who founded this newspaper that "Mother" is rightly a name for God. n1 The woman, Mary Baker Eddy, n2 states, "In divine Science, we have not as much authority for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity." n3

n1 See Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 592;

n2 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science;

n3 Science and Health,m p. 517;

Biologically based conclusions make motherhood a very vulnerable entity victimized by unfair laws, physical abuse, social prejudice. But each of us deserves a better sense of motherhood -- of the strong, tender, creative capacity each of us is given by our divine Mother, god.

Acknowledging God as Mother as well as Father, the only parent of each of us, can help us find solutions to problems associated with motherhood in today's society. Whether we are concerned about third world mothers getting proper nutrition for their children, or ways to bring harmony and stability to a two-career family, the fact that God is the Mother of each of us works as a revolutionizing law in our lives. This divine law transforms the limited, physiological view of motherhood, replacing the limits with freedom -- with a fuller sense of our identity as God's complete ideas, possessing qualities both masculine and feminine. The true sense of motherhood gives tangible nourishment , helps dissolve violent impulses and violent acts, and supplies fulfilling ways to cooperate in the home and family.

Christ Jesus' life shines with the motherhood of God. Though he never used the term "Mother" for God, he certainly mothered, in the highest sense, those who came to him for instruction and healing. He saw to it that the hungry were fed. He healed the sick, reformed a prostitute, raised the dead son of a widow, and lovingly taught the moral and spiritual laws that allowed his followers to live good and effective lives. His acts showed that the God he called "Father" is divine Love itself. He proved this mothering Love to be constant, merciful, just; guiding and protecting its creation. "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?" he said. "But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows." n4

n4 Luke 12:6, 7;

The reason Jesus could give such a complete picture of the fatherhood and motherhood of God was that he knew God as his true Parent. This conviction of his spiritual sonship gave him the perceptiveness and power to destroy what had appeared to be irrevocalbe material laws -- laws about birth, prenatal defects, disease, even the effects of death itself. He proved these laws to be mistaken views of God, man, and creation.

Whatever the particular challenge in our life right now, we can reach deep into our love for God to discover the mothering Love. We can find spiritual vision to subordinate biological and sociological definitions of ourselves and seek the vision Christ Jesus taught. Cultivating our sense of the motherhood as well as the fatherhood of God, we and others around the world can experience the comfort the prophet must have left when he heard God saying to Israel, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." n5 Nothing can give us more comfort than the invincible motherhood of God.

n5 Isaiah 66:13.

DAILY BIBLE VERSE The Lord is very p itiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:11