A Mother’s Love
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.” [Isaiah 49:15]
One cold winter in South Wales, a mother was traveling crosscountry with her young babe and was caught in a blinding blizzard. The following day, upon learning she never reached her destination, a group of men went out searching for her. They soon spotted a large mound of snow in the road that she was known to have traveled. They quickly swept away the white powder and found the frozen body of the barely dressed woman.
In her arms was a bundle of clothing, which they unwrapped to reveal her baby – alive. In the struggle of the snowstorm, the woman had taken off most of her clothing and wrapped it around the little boy to keep him alive. She knew that she would perish, but that the baby might survive. The baby was David Lloyd George, who lived on to become the celebrated prime minister of Britain during World War I. One of the reasons he achieved such greatness is that he never forgot about his mother’s love and sacrifice.
God has infused into mothers the instinct to protect their offspring even at the peril of their own lives. The Creator has pre-wired this sacrificial nature not just into human mothers, but also in the animal kingdom. In the mountains of Northern California, we have a lot of black bears that are generally harmless. On the few occasions when black bears have attacked humans, it’s usually because someone came between a mother and her cubs. Once a car was ripped apart by a mother bear because her cub was trapped inside when a well-meaning camper tried to take it home with him.
As the Bible says, “I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage…” (Hosea 13:8). There is a deep quality in the heart of a mother that describes God. The Lord was willing to give up all of heaven to redeem His children. Nothing would be withheld between the saving love of God. Not even the life of God’s only begotten Son.
