This Mother's Day we explored and celebrated the feminine side of God. All throughout scripture the writers used pictures and metaphors that communicated this idea, so our understanding and experience of God can be enriched. So we can have a more whole and complete understanding of God, and ourselves.

Pray and invite God's Spirit to speak. To presence Himself in and through your time together.

Here are some texts to explore more fully.

Genesis 1:27

Isa. 42:14

Isa. 49:14-15

Isa. 46:3-4

Hosea 11:3-4

Deut. 32:11-12

Neh. 9:21

Ps. 22:9-10

Ex. 19:4

Mt. 23:37

Hosea 13:5-8

Questions:

1. What thoughts, pictures and feelings to these images conjur up for you?

2. Is our understanding of God lacking something as a result of neglecting the feminine imagery of God? Personally? Collectively as the Church?

3. When was the last time you saw a mother living out her maternal impulse? How did God speak to you in that?

4. So how does your view of women affect your view of God?

5. So how does your view of God affect your view of women?

Yes there are numerous feminine metaphors that describe the feminine side of God but still the predominant language to describe God is masculine. Father, King, He.

Why do you think that is so? 

Read this aloud to your group and see if Pete Greig's statement resonates with your spirit.

"And so I found myself lifting a simple question to  God. 'Surely when You say that You are my Father in heaven, You don't mean this kind of (earthly) fatherhood?' And of course, before the question even passed my lips, I could hear God's whisper: 'Yes! That's exactly how I feel about you. That's exactly what my Fatherhood means. In fact, your experiences of fatherly love (and motherly love/ brackets mine) are just flickering reflections of My heart for you.'

No wonder the role of fatherhood has become such a war zone - the enemy of our souls is determined to pervert and thereby deprive us of the key to our relationship with God in Christ. The word 'father' has come to mean ' abuse' for many. For other people, fathers are distant figures. Fathers are absent. Fathers are emotionally locked up. Fathers are busy and rarely around. Fathers discipline while mothers nurture. Fathers are unfaithful. The list goes on describing the absolute antithesis of our Father in heaven. The predominant experience of fatherhood for many has little to do with God's love and faithfulness fleshed out in family. Instead the portrait of another father - the one Jesus called the 'father of lies'. He abuses, while God heals. He is cold hearted, distant, and unfaithful, while God alone is love. While Satan rushes out maniacally, limited in his power, the omnipresent God whose name is 'I Am' always has time for His children."

Pete Greig in The Vow The Vision (page 35-36).

So in an age where more and more are experiencing abaondonement and wounding from their earthly mothers, do we need to re-focus on the other image of God? The feminine?

How does culture impact our view of God, and our need to re-think and re-focus?

Talk and Pray