Mother and Father Love

As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you...Is.66:13

He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love (Songs 2:4)

God longs to comfort His people; Jesus longed to comfort Jerusalem "as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings"---but they would not.  Jesus sent The Comforter, that he might abide [with us] forever (Jn. 14:16).

All of Scripture resounds with God's longing to hold us, to comfort us.  Is this just wishful thinking on the part of the writers and prophets?

When David was in the wilderness for so many years, under threat of his life from the wrath of Saul, he experienced both the comfort and protection of God.  That is why the Psalms are hymns of thanksgiving and praise to what he experienced during a time of great stress.

A year or so ago, before I knew I had cancer, the comfort of God descended on me like a cloud of peace and strength.  I was standing in my back yard looking at the winter damage and thinking about the work needing to be done, when suddenly I knew I would not be doing it.  I thought that meant I was going to die, and I had no fear, only great peace and resolve.  "I'm ready," I said; "only give me time to clear the clutter out of my house so the kids don't have to do it when I'm gone."  I immediately went inside and started cleaning out the attic.

That was in late January.  In February, I went to the doctor for the "allergy" that was causing constant coughing.  Tests proved that I had lung cancer.  Since I already knew I was going to die, the verdict was no surprise or shock to me.  I was being carried by the strength and comfort of the Holy Spirit, who continued to sustain me with peace and absolutely no fear through surgery and recovery.  In addition, He sent family and friends to take care of all my needs, above and beyond all that could have been hoped for.

If God's comfort were limited to pity or commiserating with us, as is human sympathy, it would lead to self-pity, which is not strength.  But the comfort that God gives is related to the Latin fortis, meaning strength.  It is not a feather cushion, but steel in the backbone.

Many years ago, Hannah Smith, a Quaker wrote this:

Who can imagine a mother with a lost child ever having a ray of comfort until the child is found?  Is God then more indifferent than a mother?  In fact I believe that all the problems of our spiritual life...would vanish like mist before the rising sun, if the full blaze of the mother-heart of God could be turned upon them....

The Comforter sent to us by Jesus (so that he will abide with [us] forever) is the perfect balance of Mother and Father love---infinite tenderness and grieving on one side, infinite strength on the other.  He comes with strength and with tenderness. 

It has been said that a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.  Those who have experienced the mother-father love of God given to us in times of great stress can never be convinced that the Holy Spirit is not real or eternally present to us.  And, ultimately, it is our experience that brings us into the comforting arms of God.