Can a mother forget her nursing child? Isaiah 49:15 (NLT)
The Heart of God – The Stay Soft Series – Part 4
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
How would you describe God?
If I’m not mistaken, many would use the following adjectives:
– Strong.
– Powerful.
– Victorious.
– Ruler.
– King.
– Mighty.
– Conqueror.
Some might even throw in:
– Compassionate.
– Love.
– Merciful.
– Just.
– Good.
But I haven’t heard too many people describe the Divine as soft and tender. The love of God has always been used in a “saving” context. God loved and saved our wretched souls because he is big, strong, and powerful enough to do it.
But what if God was first and foremost tender and vulnerable and soft? What if he loved us not because we need saving, but because he can’t help himself? We struggle with this image of God because of our dualistic nature. We’re used to winners and losers, people who need help and people who help. We want God to dominate and control and be sovereign and rule and reign… But tenderness? What do we do with that? Do we even have time for it? How do we relate to Divine tenderness in these sharp and difficult times?
Isaiah prophesied as the voice of God and said:
“Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!” (Isa 49:15 NLT).
The tenderness between a mother and her newborn is a picture of Divine tenderness. The Hebrew word for the merciful love of God is ‘rahamin,' which is derived from the word ‘rehem’ which means motherly embrace. In the Hebrew language, some words are considered feminine, and others masculine. This word used to describe God is feminine. Like a mother, God has borne mankind, in her womb; she has given birth to it in pain, has nourished and consoled it. There’s a particular unity a mother shares with her baby, a particular kind of love. It is completely gratuitous, not merited, and that in this aspect it constitutes an interior necessity: an urgency and need of the heart. The need to be close and soft and vulnerable. Tender.
(SIDE NOTE – See what happens when we dismiss the feminine in the Divine? Refer to Part 2 of this series.)
The creation story, our origin narrative, is about this love, the birth of humanity by our generous and tender mother. We were before anything else loved. God was tender with us from the very beginning. Let’s not forget that the soft, tender heart of God is alive and well, and is the force most pertinent to transformation and healing.
“Live in the wisdom of accepted tenderness. Tenderness awakens within the security of knowing we are thoroughly and sincerely liked by someone… Scripture suggests that the essence of the divine nature is compassion and that the heart of God is defined by tenderness.” – Brennan Manning (Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging.)
Go to Part 5 – Good Grief »
Written by Lizzy Milani
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