Mother

A few days ago I was working on material, for my class in Ruth, about the woman who was unable to give birth to children and desperately wanted to. This may have caused her to feel worthless as a woman because she was unable to create life. The suffering she was experiencing was looked at and in the process the fact that only God can produce life was realized. Within a woman, God creates the life and it grows to where it becomes time to be born into the world.

Physical birth is truly a miracle, but so is spiritual birth. Both are life created by God at two different levels. Physical birth provides an opportunity for spiritual birth to occur. At this point the thought struck me that each birth requires a mother. As I thought about a spiritual mother, Matthew 12:50 came to mind: “For whoever shall do the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother” (NASB). As a believer, we are either a brother or sister of Jesus Christ and anyone who has been present with the Father as he was causing a person to be born again (1 Peter 1:3) is considered a spiritual mother.

As I thought about the pain and suffering of woman who are barren I then thought about all the believers who are not spiritual mothers yet and may never be. Why is it that we think so little of the spiritual birth process that we don’t suffer anguish over not being a spiritual mother like a woman does over not bearing a physical child? A very special part of a woman’s life is birthing and raising children. The Scriptures are very clear that a special part of a believer’s life is birthing and raising spiritual children. Unfortunately, for many believers that is not a priority in life and for many that do experience spiritual birthing, the tendency is to leave the spiritual baby at a nearby orphanage. Maybe if we had our priorities correct in this America wouldn’t be in the mess it is in today.