There are many images of God as female in the Bible. The belief that God is our Mother is not an official teaching of the Catholic Church, but the belief that God is our Mother is not heresy.

Here are some examples of God as female in the Bible:

God the Holy Spirit broods over primordial chaos like a mother bird broods over her eggs (cf. Genesis 1:2).

God shelters those in trouble under the protective shadow of her wings (cf. Psalms 17:8 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 91:1; 91:4; Isaiah 31:5).

God bears up former slaves on her great wings flying towards freedom (cf. Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11-12).

God is depicted as a woman knitting together an unborn child in a mother's womb (cf. 139:13-16).

God is depicted as a midwife bringing about the new creation (cf. Psalm 22:9-10).

God is depicted as a washerwoman washing away stains of blood in order to make people like new (cf. Isaiah 4:4; Psalm 51:7).

God is female Wisdom: She creates Adam, punished Cain, floods the Earth, preserved Noah and the Ark, called Abraham and saved Isaac, delivered Lot, guided Jacob, preserved Joseph, appeared to Moses, delivered the Israelites from the Egyptian nation oppressing them, was a shelter for them by day and a fire by night, and took them across the Red Sea while destroying the Egyptians (cf. Wisdom 10:1-21). God is Wisdom/Sophia in Job 28. Sophia is a street preacher in Proverbs 1:20-33 and in 4:13 a giver of life, a tree of life, "she is your life" and 8:35, "For he who finds me finds life, and wins favor from the LORD; But he who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death." Proverbs 3:19: "The LORD by wisdom founded the earth." Proverbs 8 makes it clear that God begot Sophia before the foundation of the world: "The LORD begot me, the firsborn of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago; From of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth" (Proverbs 8:22-23).

Ecclesiasticus/Sira 51:13-30 describes Sophia as constantly calling us to her ways. Sira 24 describes Sophia as coming from the mouth of the Most high and mistily covering the earth, eventually pitching her tent in Israel and inviting the children of God to come to her.

The Book of Wisdom 7:7 describes Solomon at prayer and "the spirit of Wisdom came to me." Wisdom 7:7-8:21 describes Solomon's desire for her in whom God dwells. We are saved by Wisdom (9:18). Wisdom 10 describes how Wisdom rescued the children of God one by one. God's redeeming power is Sophia.

The Book of Baruch describes Sophia as appearing on earth and living among human beings (3:38). Sophia is the Torah (4:1).

Sophia is God. Jesus is Wisdom in the flesh. The early Christians wrote about Jesus in the same language that they wrote about divine Wisdom:

Colossians 1:15

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head ob the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross [through him], whether those on earth or those in heaven.

1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist.

Like Wisdom, Jesus calls out to his people: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light" (Matthew 11:28-30). John 15:15: "I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father." Jesus/Wisdom gives us eternal life. Jesus is the embodiment of Wisdom. In John, Jesus is Wisdom come to bring eternal life and friendship with God to those whom he makes children of God.

In Matthew, Jesus describes himself as a mother bird caring for her chicks: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children rogether, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!" (23:37).

Saint Augustine in his book _On the Trinity_ writes: "But she is sent in one way that she may be with human beings; she has been sent in another way that she herself might be a human being." So, Wisdom became flesh in the human Jesus Christ.

God is like a woman baking bread:

Matthew 13:33: He spoke to them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened."

God is a woman searching for a lost coin:

Luke 15:8-10: Or whatwoman having ten coincs and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, "Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost." In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

God gives birth to us.

Deuteronomy 32:18:You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, You forgot the God who gave you birth.

Isaiah 42:14:
I have looked away, and kept silence,
I have said nothing, holding myself in;
But now, I cry out as a woman in labor,
gasping and panting.

Isaiah 66:13:

As a mother comforts her son,
so will I comfort you;
in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort.

Isaiah 49:15:
Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?

Even should she forget,
I will never forget you.

God the Holy Spirit is our Mother who gives birth to us in the waters of Baptism (cf. John 3:5-6).

We are born again in the waters and Spirit of Baptism.

John 3:5 Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven without being born of water and Spirit.

Water and Spirit means Baptism. If "water" meant the waters of the womb, then that interpretation means that those human beings who die in utero cannot be saved. Surely, this isn't the case.

Matthew 3:11: I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.

Mark 1:8 I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit.

Luke 3:16 John answered them all, saying, "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.

Since we are baptized by Jesus with the holy Spirit and fire, and the Spirit gives birth to us in Baptism, we are born again.

Acts 1:5 for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.

Romans 6:3-4: Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

Clearly, when are Baptized, we die and are born again.

1 Cor. 12:13: For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews of Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Ephesians 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

Colossians 2:12 You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

Again, we die in Baptism and are born again when Jesus raises us from spiritual death.

1 Peter 3:21ff This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

Titus 3:4-7 But when the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.

When Scripture speaks of rebirth and being born again, the passages mean Baptism. Again, we are born again when we are Baptized, and the Holy Spirit our Mother gives birth to us.

Cindy Smith
NOcms@SPAMdragon.com --