Our Mother God
and her image within

A Mother's Day Sermon | May 11, 2025
First Presbyterian Church
Sandusky, OH

Hagai Sophia (532-537)
The icon dates to the time that the time when Hagai Sophia was a Christian Cathedral.

Genesis 1:26-27, Proverbs 8:12-32, Proverbs 2:5

We often speak of God in masculine terms. We call him Father. We even pray, “Our Father in Heaven.” And there’s nothing wrong in that --- if we realize that father is just a word used to help us understand the nature of God, not a definition of God. The problem comes when we allow the masculine nature of God to over shadows the feminine nature of God. So, I thought Mother’s Day might be a good time to look at the feminine side of God.

Almost all primitive religions had a god who was both masculine and feminine. And the Hebrew God was no exception.

Consider the Hebrew scriptures where we often see God as a mother hen or bear:

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. (Psa. 17:8)
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. (Psa. 57:1)
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge … (Psa. 91:4)



Jesus picks up on that when he laments over Jerusalem:

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34)

These are images of sheltering and protection. Like a mother God shelters and protects us.

However, a mother doesn’t only protect, she also nurtures her children to grow strong as they mature, and eventually to become independent. God as mother is no different:

In Deuteronomy 12:10-11 we read,

[God] guarded [Jacob] as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads her wings to catch them and carries them aloft.

Mother eagles are known to teach their young to fly by pushing them out of the nest and then catching them before they fall to the ground. What mother wouldn’t seek to save her child from harm? God cares for us, just as a mother would.

The prophets even have God referring to herself as a mother:

For a long time, I [God] have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. (Isa. 42:14)
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I [God] will not forget you! (Isa. 49:15)
As a mother comforts her child, so will I [God] comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. (Isa. 66:13)

“In the Gospels Jesus promises his disciples that although he will be gone, he will leave them with his spirit, the Comforter. In Christian theology this is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God.

In the Hebrew testaments, the Spirit of God is known as Sophia, “Wisdom.” What is significant here is that Sophia is feminine. In the verse preceding our reading from Proverbs 12 we read, “Does not Wisdom raise her voice?” We read further, “She takes the stand,”

Although we Christians may be uncomfortable with speaking about the feminine aspect of God, for the Jewish people the Spirit of God – Wisdom – is feminine. Even in the Greek the word for “spirit” in the Christian testament is neuter in gender.

When the Hebrew scriptures speak of God as masculine, they are referring to the divine energies of God, the all-encompassing nature of God. When they speak of God as feminine, they are referring to the nurturing nature of God.

Keep this thought in mind. We will come back to it in a minute, but first, let’s take a look at our scripture reading from Genesis:

Then God said let US make Adam in OUR image, in OUR likeness.

Note the plural, “us” and “our.” By the way, the Hebrew word that I translated “Adam” means “of earth, or dirt,” and has no associated gender.

Reading on (v.27), God created Adam in THEIR own image, in the image of God, God created Adam, male and female God created them.

The Hebrew is best understood to mean that each – man and women – has both feminine and masculine aspects to their being. If we are created in the image of God, if we do have divine within our very being, then we too have both the masculine and feminine nature of God within.

You may have noted that I have been using the words, “Feminine” and “masculine.” I have done so, because in a spiritual sense, “feminine” and “masculine" have nothing to do with Gender. If we are in the image of God, our Gender has nothing to do with our nature. Unfortunately for us, our culture has made it so.

Now let’s go back to Wisdom – the feminine nature of God – as presented in our Proverbs passage:

In verses 22 and 23, Wisdom – Sophia – tells us that she was from the beginning, from before the world was created. More pointedly she tells us that she is part of the nature of God.

So, being created in both the feminine and masculine image of God, what does that say to how we live as people of God?

Well, first of all Wisdom tells us that we should daily seek her out (v. 34). But interestingly, it is not just the seeking of Wisdom to live a godly life, Wisdom is life. The very foundation of what it means to be in the image of God.

Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives God blessings.

I am going to step out on a limb here and suggest that exercising the feminine image of God within is as important – if not more important – than exercising the masculine image of God within.

So, let’s ask ourselves just how does that feminine image show herself in our living?

Wisdom tells us that her words of nurture are true and fair. That they are more precious than silver or gold. That they are spoken with discernment and prudence, and that there is no room in them for arrogance, rudeness or evil. The words of Wisdom always nurture.

Jesus puts the feminine nature of God into practice in the Beatitudes. In the Beatitudes Jesus reminds us that allowing God’s nurturing nature to guide our life always blesses:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Apostle Paul speaks of the feminine nature of God as a particular type of love, a love we who profess Christ should have at the center of our being:

Paul says if I have not love, I am nothing. God’s image within me is distorted.

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves. Love never fails. I Corinthians 13

May God grant us the Holy Wisdom to hear and apply. Amen.