Mama bear and the image of God

By Tyler Tankersley

A friend of mine was recently hiking in the Rocky Mountains. He rounded a bend and nearly came upon two twin Grizzly cubs. Luckily for my friend they were far enough away that he was able to turn and run before they saw him. When he was telling this story, he leaned close and said, "I wasn't running from the cubs. I was running from Mama! Beware of Mama!"

In the Old Testament prophetic book of Hosea, God is described as a fierce mother bear who says, "I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs" (Hosea 13:8). There are other female and maternal images for God in the Bible. God is described as a mother hen (Ruth 2:12; Psalms 17:8, 57:1, 91:4; Matthew 23:37) and the prophet Isaiah often depicts God as a human mother: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (Isaiah 49:15).

Mother's Day seems like a fine opportunity to remember and reflect upon God's maternal side. I know there are some people who will be uneasy with the idea of using feminine images for God. However, doing so is not some sort of radical, feminist innovation but is threaded throughout the scriptures.

And leaders in the church have noticed and utilized those images for centuries. The medieval German theologian Meister Eckhart wrote: "What does God do all day long? God gives birth. From all eternity God lies on a maternity bed giving birth."

Given the prevalence of these maternal metaphors for God, it is striking that they often go ignored or unmentioned in many churches. Perhaps that is because, for quite some time, churches have been comfortable with retaining the supposed superior position of men in ecclesial leadership hierarchy. If you admit that God has a feminine side, it makes it that much more difficult to continue with a patriarchal system of governance. Maybe in addition to worshipping God as a loving father, we should also be praising God as a holy mother (even a fierce mother bear!).

The goal of utilizing feminine and maternal metaphors for God should not be the dilution or deletion of masculine and paternal metaphors. God is indeed a loving and providing Father. However, maybe it should serve as a reminder that our ways of speaking of God are limited and finite ways of expression the majesty and infinity of a Holy God; all of our metaphors fall short of full reality. However, we would do well to remember that these metaphors help us to understand that God is both father and mother. After all, the book of Genesis tells us, "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27).

This Mother's Day, let's remember that all people, both men and women and both fathers and mothers, bear the Imago Dei (the image of God).