Kristin Tovar

“God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain. I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans.

I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.” 
—The Message, Psalm 131:1-2

Dear Beloveds,

Growing up, I did not often hear about God’s nurturing and mothering aspects. There was such emphasis on God as Father that it left little room for a fuller relationship with God that included God as Mother. This passage in the Psalms from our daily reading provides a key to deep rest and peace. It is something I believe many of us are longing for right now, and it comes in the form of a visual of a mother and child.

I imagine this scene from Psalm 131 playing out for myself with a loving mother on the listening end: “Mom, I am not taking on too much, nor worried about things outside of my scope of control. I am here and present. I am content in ways that bring me back to the feeling of being in your arms, without a care in the world, because of the comfort of your love.”

For some of us, our relationship with our mother was one of comfort and rest. For others, it may have been a source of pain with little provision of safety and care to imagine the nature of God as a nurturing Mother. Regardless of our experience with our own mothers, Isaiah 66:13 reminds us, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” God shelters us, comforts us, and gives us a reprieve from the constant chaos, whether from the storms inside of us or the troubles of the external world.

I have come to deeply appreciate that the Christian faith always invites us into a more expansive story than the dominant narrative culture hands us. Dependence on God is a gift always available to us. As we celebrate the 250th Anniversary of a nation founded on independence, I am reminded that freedoms and independence are not inherently bad. It is when they are taken to extremes that we lose things on the other side of those extremes, such as the gift of dependence, collective care, and communal love. Our Christian identity provides a home for us in complete freedom and complete dependence on the Spirit.

I pray we draw comfort from the opportunity to be held in the arms of a loving mother, God. One that celebrates our freedom from extremes and invites us into a well-balanced life of peace and comfort.

In Love,

—Kristin