I was blessed to attend a baby shower the other day. A long-awaited miracle baby. A baby of promise. The air was thick with celebration. It’s as if we all let out a collective sigh of relief that this prayer had been answered. Finally.
As we began a blessing and prayer time, I looked around the room of women and choked back a sob.
This was holy ground.
There were so many stories. Some had no children of their own. Others had birthed children. Many had miscarried babies. A couple of women grieved babies lost through abortion. Several had adopted children. Some had glowing little toddlers, some had heart-wrenching prodigals.
Despite these stories, our own hurts, and sorrows, we still rose up to prophesy over this new mama.
But what to pray?
Why pray some pie in the sky future that every woman present already knew would not happen?
There would be terrible, sleepless nights in the beginning.
And in the elementary years
And in the teen years.
The child would rend her heart over the years as much as he would rend her body in delivery.
The road would be blissfully filled with hand-drawn art and sloppy kisses. But the road most assuredly would also be filled with broken dreams and promises as this mother, like all mothers, weathered her child developing and testing his free will.
What to pray?
Do we pray for God to shield her and her child from all hardship?
We know that trials and hardships drive us into Him more deeply.
Do we pray for a fairytale birth story and golden child reality?
We know full well that our enemy thrashes our faith with a weapon called disappointment, so why fill her head with unrealistic expectations?
And tell me what on earth does God have to say about all this?
Enter the Heart of a Mother.
If you are a woman, you know what it means to be a mother. Child or no child, there is an innate God-given fiber of your very being that rises up around the weak and defenseless. We somehow don’t have to be taught to nurture, teach, tend, or protect.
Some women are warm hugs and soft places to land. Some women are more like fierce pioneers who cut a new path for others to follow. Regardless of the varied expressions of a woman, one common thing to watch is what she does if her loved ones are at risk. Think mama bear with cubs.
I have been walking out a beautiful revelation from the Lord about the feminine side of God. I am writing a book on it actually.
But for today—because it is nearly Mother’s Day—because of the days we live in, when many already-born persons want to debate the validity of un-born persons—I want to speak truth.
God is a God of Life.
God, even uniquely expressed in the Holy Spirit, holds all the tenderness and nurturing we need to exist but also to model. The Holy Spirit contains and holds our sorrow, strengthens and undergirds our weakness, teaches and leads us into Truth. The Holy Spirit defends and protects. The Bible draws so many parallels of the Holy Spirit to women that finally, FINALLY, we find our feminine place in the Godhead.
And because we find our place in the Godhead, the beautiful, powerful, life-giving God, we find our place in the world. We are life-givers. We are life protectors.
Would you like to know the theme that formed in our prayer time for this new mama, and actually every woman present? That we would come to embrace the overwhelming love of God.
This baby shower was a God shower. Reminding us that the Holy Three of Them created each one of us and delights to sing over us in every season, heartache, milestone, success or weakness. That’s what we prayed.
May each of us receive the love of God as fully as this new mama loves her baby.