The Mother’s Womb

In my search for mentions of the nursing mother in the Bible, I came across this article that wrote, ” The word “compassion” in Hebrew is rakhum, and it is related to the word “womb,” or rekhem. The word itself conveys the emotion and nurture that a mother has for her vulnerable child. This relationship to the word womb also gives us a sense that compassion originates in the core of a person—a gut instinct or something that you feel in your inner being.”

But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

1 Thessalonians 2:7 (NKJV)

This paragraph jogged my memory of something I read just yesterday, it’s by Timothy Keller, “The Hebrew word for obtaining “mercy” (Hebrew rhm) is the word for “womb”. Old Testament scholars tell us the word came to have its meaning from the feelings of parents toward their newborn infants. The love of a mother for the child of her womb is not “merited” by the child — it comes simply because the heart of the mother powerfully moves her.“

“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 (NKJV)

God has given mothers the gift of maternal instinct and love. You heard of how mothers are gushed with (almost) unconditional love for her infant who was just born, the person who had done nothing to merit the love and simply cry. However, some might see this love chipped away over time by misbehaviour, mismatched expectations, “mis-parenting”, etc – just look at parents struggling to connect with teenagers. Maternal instinct can also be dulled by distance, busyness, demands of life, and selfish desires. It’s like everyone has conscience (also the Holy Spirit), but along the way, we made small choices to tune it out and go against it, gradually weakening that conscience.

There is also another group of mothers who feel nothing of this sort as they look at their newborn. Could it be personality, upbringing, culture that had tapered this instinct and love before it had a chance to be used? Would they even be motivated to grow this instinct with quality time spent with the children?

There are other mothers who detest the newborn who did nothing wrong but simply because she is a girl or deformed, or of what the newborn reminded them of, such as the abandoned lover or the rape.

Unlike the song 世上只有妈妈好 (translated: only mother is good in the world), not all mothers are made equal – just look at those mothers abusing and neglecting their children in the newspaper. Like humans, mothers are not perfect, although they seem to be when we were young. They carry with them generational trauma inherited from their mothers that was passed on to us. I’ve read that  maternal grandmothers are mostly responsible for genetic inheritance, which reminds me that the eggs in a mother’s womb were already formed when she was in her mother’s womb. So a pregnant woman carries both her child and her grandchild in the womb. The influence she has.

But You are He who took Me out of the womb;
You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts.

PsALm 22:9 (NKJV)

Mother’s day always bring a mixed bag of emotions for me.

As a child, I need to learn to look at and lean on Abba Father instead of my earthly mother, to abide in Him as a branch on the heavenly vine like I have mentioned in my previous post, “Roots that Bind”. To honour my mother and mother-in-law as figures God have put in my life, albeit their shortcomings and our differences. I didn’t choose them, but God chose them for me.

As a mother, I am fighting hard to break the generational trauma like David, so that my children get to enjoy prosperity in life like Solomon. I need to remind myself that battles are never easy – some days I will win some, other days I will lose some, but I know with God by my side, I will win the war, I just need to keep going.

Being a mother has been tough, but having children dug out things deep down within me – the pain hidden from long ago, the impurities burned to the surface, and the love I never knew I have.

To all mothers, it has not been easy. But God sees you. He is El Roi, the God who sees. May you celebrate yourself, and I pray that God will continue to grow the maternal love, instinct and wisdom in you. Children are a gift and reward from the Lord, cherish and steward them well.

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