God could have used any number of analogies when describing how His people were to relate to Him and to one another. But instead of a corporate hierarchy or military ranks, the most common metaphor used throughout the Bible is family. God uses marital language again and again to help us understand our relationship to Him. And our relationship to fellow Christians? We are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, people united into a new kind of spiritual family.
Read MoreWomanhood has always been deeply connected to how we work. Through almost all of human history, and still in many places around the world today, work has been arranged around the necessary limitations of raising young children.
Read MoreYou kick me now, secure and snuggled while the world burns down. You aren’t exactly timely news to share at work, so I hide you beneath the desk, away from the eye of Zoom, tucked away in the only safe place I know.
Read MoreToday we reach the final trait that I want to explore in the mothering metaphor. We’ve looked at the ways in which all women are included in the maternal tasks of nourishing and housing life, but in order to dive into the idea of nurturing life, we have to take a step back.
Read MoreRepost from Cornerstone WLA. As we've walked through some of the famous Old Testament stories in our summer sermon series at Cornerstone, I am struck by the power of story to help us better understand God and ourselves.
Read MoreMy app tells me that the baby’s sexual organs are forming and it’s crazy to think that vital aspects of this tiny person’s identity are already present. Deep in our child’s DNA is the code for the man or woman to come.
Read MoreWe began working on our version of a victory garden in the early weeks of quarantine. After tearing up some lingering concrete in the backyard, we seeded grass, built a rock wall between our yard and the neighboring garage and starting planting a number of things which we have managed not to kill (mostly).
Read MoreI feel like She-Ra when I nurse a baby, pouring forth nourishment miraculously made from my own body. Breastfeeding for me feels powerful and delightful and connective. I love nursing my babies. I feel hopelessly inadequate housing one.
Read MoreHousing another human is my least favorite part of mothering. It’s true, some women describe pregnancy as the time in life when they felt most beautiful. The symptoms of carrying a child can vary so widely from woman to woman that some will find they pale in comparison with the mysterious wonder of the life blooming inside. I delight in hearing these experiences. I rejoice for these women. But I am not one of them.
Read MoreIn a delightful reversal of circumstances, my seven-year-old is reading me a bedtime story while I lay miserably on the couch.
Read MoreDid you know that the Hebrew word for compassion is related to womb? In Exodus 24, when God calls himself compassionate, He is using a deeply emotional word, one that comes from deep within the gut, a word used often in coordination with the action of forgiveness and rescue.
Read MoreI have good news for those of you who really don’t vibe with all this earth mama imagery. The point of the mothering metaphor is not for us to go all Moon Goddess, track our cycles to maximize our inner seasons, and homemake everything from soap to lightbulbs.
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