In the Womb of God

In the Womb of God

Life is hard…

… sometimes more so than others. But rarely worry free … rarely-a-skipping-down-the-lane-on-a-sunny-day kind of freedom.

Maybe you’re at a good place right now … able to jump out of bed with a smile on your face. Or maybe not. Maybe you struggle to fight off depression before you even get out of bed. If you are interested in sharing how your year has been so far, feel free to leave your thoughts below or send them to me privately. I am eager to hear from you!

It’s been that kind of a year for me … the wake-up-under-a-cloud, afraid, tired, and discouraged kind of year. I could share with you my emergency room trip over Thanksgiving, my mother passing away in October, unexpected job changes, financial crises as a result, personal medical upheavals, and so forth, but I would only be just getting started. It’s been a lot. I’ve been struggling, and I’m tired. Maybe you are too.

Yet, monthly spiritual direction throughout this year has been a lifeline. A time that is specifically set aside to listen to God … to look for God’s hand in my life. I cannot recommend spiritual direction enough!

It was in the midst of this year of chaos … in the times of intentionally listening to God, when I heard God call me back.

Back, that is, into the womb.

Weird, right?

Maybe, maybe not.

What comes to mind when you think of a womb? I think of a safe, warm, and protected place. A place where a little one is nourished, cherished, snuggled and nestled in . A womb is quiet and peaceful. It’s a place where new life begins.

A womb—God’s womb—it started sounding pretty good.

Okay, not literally. I mean, God does not literally have a womb any more than God literally has a penis. (Sorry for the graphic explanation, but you get my point.) Yet, the idea of God having a “womb-type” does actually make some sense in light of Scripture.

Let’s think about this. Besides all the Scriptural metaphors of God in the feminine, like as a nursing mother, a mother hen, a mother bear, it was Jesus who said, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born from above, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” and also, “Unless you are born of water and of the Spirit...” Then later John tells us, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born from God.”

Then there are the more subtle ways Scripture teaches us about God’s womb, for example, “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion…” (Psalm 145:8). The Hebrew word for “compassion” (rakhum) has its root in the word “womb” (rekhem). It’s a word full of the strong emotions a mother has for her child. Or in Isaiah 49:15-16, when God self-identifies with the feelings of a woman, “Can a woman forget the child at her breast and have no compassion (rakhaum) on the son of her womb?”

That’s what I was needing—maybe you too—needing a nest, if you will, a place of compassion, a place to be held close, nourished, and protected.

So, I went with that image and found it healing.

For me, it visualized what I was reading in the Bible—about being protected and sheltered, about finding rest. The image of God’s womb was a place to be restored, a place from which new birth could happen.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

Scripture repeatedly uses female images for God. The Church, tragically, doesn’t teach those images, even though Jesus clearly spoke about them. Let’s look at another example.

We get the phrase “born again” from the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3). “You must be born anew,” said Jesus. And how is one born anew? From a womb. Nicodemus totally understood Jesus’ words to be about women and wombs, he responds with, “Surely, they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus tells him not to be surprised by this saying, and goes on to say, “… no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and born of the Spirit.”

What I find interesting—sad, really—is that most translators choose to translate the word apo in Greek as “of.” The word could be translated either way, of or from. Sometimes in Scripture the word is translated from, sometimes of.   Why did translators choose “of” here instead of “from,” making Jesus’s words a bit awkward. My guess is that even though Jesus was clearly referring to birthing from a womb (as Nicodemus picked up on), perhaps it’s a little too unsettling to quote Jesus talking about being born from the Spirit, or born from God, because it brings to mind the image of God as female, as having a womb, as giving birth. And that, for some people, may just be too uncomfortable.

But think about the beautiful side of wombs …

… that at about 18 weeks, a baby can begin to hear the sounds of its mother’s body—her heartbeat, air moving in and through her lungs, her blood.

Transferring these realities to me and God makes me want to cry … it makes me yearn to be in God’s womb. I long to hear the heartbeat of God, to hear the wind—the Spirit—move through God’s lungs.

By the third trimester a baby can recognize its mother’s voice. A baby in utero will respond with an increased heart rate when his or her mother is speaking, suggesting they are more alert when they hear her voice.

I want that! I want to recognize God’s voice … I, too, want to be more alert when I hear the voice of God!

When we limit our images of God to masculine, we limit God. We put human-made boundaries around how God desires to be toward us. Restricting our metaphors of God to what makes us comfortable is nothing less than trying to control God.

It places us above God.

It is sin.

I invite you to do some imaging … some visualizing yourself in the womb of God. It’s safe there. It’s warm. You are wanted. You are loved. And it’s the perfect place to be born anew.

I would love to hear from each of you! To hear your thoughts about the womb of God. Is it inviting?

Blessings to each of you, my friends!

And the Spirit of God was hovering…

And the Spirit of God was hovering…
(Have a listen or continue reading below…)

I don’t know about you, but my mental picture of creation has always been full of mighty winds, enormous waves crashing, maybe even some lightening and thunder. I’m not sure where that image came from … but my picture was full of turbulence and upheaval. How have you always imagined creation?

Quite contrary to my image, however … thankfully … is the picture God gives us in Genesis.

“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

I’m not sure where to start with this passage … it’s full of so many surprising and fantastically unforeseen discoveries about God!

In the last post we looked at the Hebrew word for Spirit of God and learned it was a feminine word. We also began to understand the ramifications of the fact that the Spirit—God—is described in the feminine. So, let’s begin today’s discoveries on the basic level of grammar.

If the idea of the Spirit as feminine seems questionable or difficult to swallow, Hebrew grammar helps us out by confirming the fact for us. “In Hebrew, verbs have gender and number, and every verb must agree with its subject in gender and number. Therefore, feminine singular nouns must take a feminine singular verb form.”

You guessed it; hovering is in the feminine singular form—agreeing with its subject—Spirit of God—it’s that simple. (Not sure why I haven’t heard much about this fact, however … hmm.)

Another interesting fact is that contrary to the Old Testament portrayals of God, neighboring ancient Near Eastern cultures divided their gods into distinctly male gods and female gods. Our God—introduced to us in creation—encompasses both genders and neither gender. Our God is beyond gender and inclusive of both genders right from the start.

And here’s the part I love …

While studying the word “hovering” I learned it’s not really hovering in the sense of an eerie floating spirit moving ghostlike over the waters. Rather … and listen closely … hovering is more correctly translated with words like: move gently, relax, to grow soft, cherish, and brood!

This is a maternal word—it’s a mother’s word!

It’s the same word Moses uses to describe God’s actions, “Like an eagle that protects her chicks and hovers over her young” (Deut. 32:11). It is the image of a bird protecting and nurturing new life that is forming under her!

The creation story in Genesis seems to want us to know that the earth is receiving the gentle maternal care of God!

by Stushie

It’s a story of God’s tenderness and loving presence!

It’s a story of motherly devotion as a new world is being formed beneath Her!

But there’s more…

The Hebrew word for water, mah-yim, begins and ends with the letter Mem. (Hebrew is read right to left.) In its closed form the mem symbolizes pregnancy and its open form it symbolizes birth; you can see the open and closed mem below.

מַיִם – water

Let’s put some things together…

We have the following words describing creation—formless, darkness, deep waters, the feminine word for God—is this sounding like a birth story to you?

Waters—birthing waters—something beautiful being created.

Water, in Scripture, is often symbolic of birth and rebirth. Noah’s flood waters were a new birth for the earth. When passing through the waters of the Red Sea, the nation of Israel was reborn. And baptism?… perhaps we ought to more accurately look at the waters of baptism as birthing waters! As we emerge from the waters of baptism (in whatever form they are given), it demonstrates our re-birth. We are now children of God … born of God … birthing waters.

Giving birth is not an unusual image for God in Scripture. Isaiah tells us God says, “But now, like a woman in labor, I will cry and groan and pant” (Isa 42.14). John tells us those who believe are children of God “… born not of flesh … but born of God” (Jn 1:13).

It is God who brings forth life … who labors to bring forth new life!

It’s not about body parts or reproductive functions. “Feminine energy is connected with fertility, but again, doesn’t need to be reduced to human reproduction. Growth, whether it’s spiritual, physical, or emotional, celebrates a feminine energy in that we give life to something that was not there before.”

So, if Scripture is God’s self-revelation … helping us to better understand and be in relationship with God, then what do you think God wants us to understand from this passage? What is it about God that is so important it is revealed to us in the very first verses of the entire Bible?

Here’s what I think …

The creation story is a love story!

It’s a true love story as our God gently sways, hovering, rocking back and forth, cradling this newly born creation—earth.

I believe Scripture is clearly teaching us there is a tender side to God that only the metaphor of a mother can reveal. Motherhood, the feminine, they do not define God; these similes just give us a better way to understand the whole character of our God.

I believe the creation story is in Scripture not only to tell us how our world was created, but perhaps more importantly, to help us know that as part of that creation, we are loved. We are coddled in the warm and caring arms of God—like those of a mother who looks into the eyes of her newborn and smiles.

If this information is new to you, it’s worth asking why? Why haven’t you or I heard this before? Why haven’t we been taught about the Spirit of God, about hovering, about waters of new life?

Whether you’ve thought about these traits of God before or not, I encourage you to share these insights about the whole character of God with someone else … maybe the next time you’re teaching Sunday school … maybe with your small group … your children or grandchildren … your pastor … anybody … so that others don’t have to ask why they have never heard about the feminine in God.

Creation—it’s a love story.

We are loved. God is the lover.

It is good to be wanted.

It is good to be loved.

.

NOTE:

“In Hebrew, verbs have gender…” Feminine Singular Nouns (hebrew4christians.com)
“The Hebrew word for water, mah-yim…Mikveh, Water and Higher Consciousness | Reclaiming Judaism
“Feminine energy is connected with fertility, What Is The Divine Feminine? (thegoodtrade.com)

Steppin’ Out

Steppin’ Out

Happy to announce a brand, new Facebook Page for Daughters of Eve!

Enjoy motivational quotes, thought-provoking facts, links to other helpful sites, access links to this blog, and some stunning and serene pictures. I’m just getting started … be sure to follow along so you don’t miss out!

Blessings to all … keep wearing those masks! 😀