God-as-parent is a radical metaphor
It’s not possible to parent without experiencing risk, weakness, pain, and transformation.
My youngest child turns 20 this month, which feels like a milestone. No more teenagers in the house! Everyone’s an adult (sort of)! We’ve officially launched our kids!
Those exclamation points are in earnest; I have much to celebrate, and much to be grateful for. At the same time, I’m feeling tender and pensive. Like Mary in Luke 2, I’m pondering many things in my heart. What have the last two decades meant? Who was I when I became a mother, who have I become since, and who will I become now? Most of all, I’m pondering the bewildering business of letting go. My children are out in the world now. How will I bear the uncertainties of that?
Spiritually, this tender time has led me to contemplate one of the Bible’s central metaphors for God: God as parent, as father and mother. This is a metaphor I’ve always taken for granted, but now I’m freshly curious, hungry to know more about the paternal and maternal faces of God.
