God our Mother

I rescued Beni from behind the church when she was just a few weeks old. She was flea ridden, emaciated, and hiding behind a garbage can close to death.

I bathed her, gave her veterinary care, nurtured and soothed her. Eventually, it seems she adopted me as her mother. Wherever I go, she goes with me, just to be in the same room. My favorite is coffee in the morning, when she sits at the chair across from me, looking at me. Often, she will nest into me in order to soothe herself. I can feel her breath and her heartbeat settle as she rests, comforted.

Sometimes, I feel it’s an image of God. God who rescued, restored, and cares for us. And God, who when we’re in distress, comforts us.

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. Ezekiel 34:11-16 NRSV