A Mothering Kind of Love

Christians often equate faith with having correct beliefs about Jesus. However, the relationship Jesus is describing in John 10:22-30 is much deeper than a set of beliefs.

In this passage, people come to Jesus. They don’t know if he is the messiah, and they want proof so they can get their head around Jesus. “Tell us who you are!” Jesus’ response points to a different kind of knowing, not one based on a cerebral understanding but one based on the attachment of the heart: “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them… life… no one will snatch them out of my hand.” 

It is as if Jesus is saying, “I offer you secure attachment. You can attach yourself to me, the way a small duckling attaches to a mother duck. And I will not let you go. You can attach yourself to me, and you will be known by me. I will speak to you, and you will be able to sense my voice and follow. I will give you life, and no one can snatch you away from me.” To me,  Jesus describes a secure attachment bond, like the bond within a healthy parent/child relationship.

Some of us have lost our mothers recently, and we are missing the secure attachment that our mothers gave us. Some of us did not have a secure attachment with our mothers and grieve a kind of love we did not have. Some people long to be mothered. Some people long to mother. Mother’s Day stirs up grief as well as gratitude. 

Into these longings, Jesus comes near to us. “I know you. I hear you. Come, know me. Come, attach yourself to me. Come let me mother you.” This is the embodied, heart-patterned knowing Jesus is offering us.

I got a call from a mom this week. As we talked, she told me this story of her son, whom she found in his room, looking sad. She went up to him and sat on the bed:
“What’s up, buddy?” 
“I’m sad,” he said.
“What’s got you feeling sad?” 
“I have to wait till I’m a grown up to be a superhero.” 
 “Oh, do you mean like a make-believe super hero, or like an actual superhero?”
“No, like an actual superhero. Like a fireman. Or a policeman”.
“Right”, she said. “Let’s get on our bikes and go look for some trouble. Let’s go be superheroes”.

So he put on his cape and they rode through town looking for some trouble. They found a plastic bag in the middle of the road. They put that right! 

When she told me this story, I thought, “that’s it!” That’s mother duck energy right there—watching your child, noticing they are sad, making space for the sadness, letting the longings come to the surface, honouring the longings so their child can become a superhero for the day. We all need that kind of mothering. We can all offer that kind of mothering. Can we imagine that this is the kind of mothering Jesus offers you and me?

Deep peace,

Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, Southpoint Church