Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy…that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom.” vss. 10a, 11
Isaiah 66:10-12
Jerusalem had been destroyed many times, and most recently it had been laid waste by the Babylonians. The temple had been burned, and the protective walls of the city were torn down. Yet the prophet insisted on telling the people that Jerusalem would be restored, and more than that, she would be better than ever. He uses the image of a nursing mother to describe what she will mean to her future inhabitants. His choice of metaphor is perfect and describes an aspect of God’s relationship to us that is too often neglected. Following the prevailing pattern of scripture, we’ve gotten used to thinking of God as father, which gives us a perfectly good but woefully inadequate picture. How much better it is to conjure up a well-known yet hidden way to describe love from a human perspective! Even though we know that breastfeeding is a natural part of child-rearing, for modesty’s sake we often contrive to keep it hidden. But when we see a baby drinking deeply with delight from a glorious bosom we are reminded of the deep bonds that are being created between mother and child. And this is how God has loved us from the moment of our births. This is how precious we are in the eyes of God!
Thought for the Day: How do I react to the sight of a nursing baby?
0 Comments