He Is Mom Enough

Time Magazine issued a controversial cover recently, showing a 26 year-old mom breastfeeding her nearly four year-old son. The title of the article was “Are You Mom Enough?”  Jamie, the woman on the cover, practices something called “attachment parenting.”  I think you can see why.

Immediately, this reminded me of a controversial bit of Scripture in the book of Isaiah, one where God is likened to a mother.  Here what God says to his people:

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”  (Isaiah 49:15).

Go ahead and ask a mother who’s breastfeeding her child, “Will you forget about your baby?” and see what she says.  She’d laugh at you, peering down at her child and respond something like, “As if that would ever happen!”  To be a mother is to be someone who feels deeply and sacrificially for a child.

But even our most attached mothers will only nurse for a few years, before they call it quits.  That’s the part that astounds me about this verse.  This verse says that long after Jamie forgets about her children, God will still be caring for them.

Long after the best mom on earth forgets about intimately nourishing and caring for her children, God will still be mothering his.  Call it “attachment parenting.”

God is deeply attached to you.  Long after this world lets you down, God will still have you in his arms, pressed against his heart.  He will not let go of you.

Either you are his child, or not.  If someone asked me, “Are you the child of John and Victoria?” I would respond either yes or no.  There’s no in between, no guessing.  Being a child is not a matter of feeling or opinion; rather, it’s a legal standing.  When God calls you his child, either you are or you aren’t.  It’s not a matter of feeling or opinion.  It doesn’t depend on how you’ve performed that day or whether you’ve been a good kid or not.  At the end of the day, do you belong to God?  Is he your Mother?  Is he your Father?  Are you his child?

How do you become God’s child?  By asking Jesus Christ to become your brother.  Jesus gives us the right to become children of God (John 1:12).  Jesus puts us into the embrace of a divine Parent who will never stop caring for us.  So, you need to take stock and see if the gods you’re embracing love like this God loves.  Whose arms are you seeking right now?  Is it a person, a relationship, an idea, a possession, a goal?  Take a hard look at the things you’re giving ultimate status to, and ask them, “Are you God enough?”

© Samuel Kee, 2012