God is like our Mother

"Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you." Is 49:15

The importance of a loving mother in the life of a child can hardly be overemphasized. Mothers are routinely asked to find time, day and night, to listen to, console, and advise their children on matters as simple as a haircut and as complex as the choice of a life partner. More important, they have the   burden of creating a safe space, emotionally and spiritually, for their entire family.

No doubt it is because so many mother's astound us by their heroic virtue that we hold them up as icons of hope and imitation. Perhaps you remember reading about Stephanie Decker, who shielded her children from the ravages of a tornado only to lose both her legs. Unable not to help her children when they were in great danger, she was willing to risk anything to help them.

When Isaiah assures us that God's love for us is even fuller than a mother's love for her children, he opens an image of God that is both powerful and challenging. If we are made in God's image than we must be capable, like Stephanie Decker, of loving others as God loves us. More, we must put aside anything that gets in the path of living the Gospel fully, not for our own salvation, but to announce Good News.

Today, let go of your own safety to help others.

What story comes to mind when you think of God never forgetting us?