Framed by Faith » Blog Archive » Is God Our Father, Mother or Both?

Until the mad scientists figure out how to create humans without need of opposite gender participants, each of us owes our existence to the consummation of a “loving” relationship between father and mother. And because we are not only physical beings, but spiritual, we are taught to assign a gender to heavenly (or devilish) beings, be it gods, angels or demons. These are necessary pronouns to complete our dialogue, such as “He loves me” or “She tempted me.”

So unless we are Greek god/goddess worshipers or feminists, we are likely to regard God as “he,” along with his son, Jesus and the only angels mentioned in the Bible as guys. That being said, if we are to speak of God in the third person, how do we address him/her? Or do we just never use the pronoun? Does any of it make any difference to God?

Our first encounter in this life (other than the bright lights and sterile environment) is the creature we call mom. She immediately assumes the role of nurturer, feeding us from her own body (or a similar feeding device), keeping us warm, disposing of our waste, entertaining us and generally making us feel safe and secure. As we begin to grow, we may or may not have personal encounters with the other creature called dad. Whether or not he gets involved, we will certainly be observing him and piecing together his role in our life.

These two people (assuming one of them doesn’t take off) will mold our little beings into the mature, normal big beings that they hope we will become some day. They teach us by word or example, and they punish us when we don’t heed the word or we imitate their bad example. They are also guardians of all that we are exposed to, which can be a plethora of good and bad examples that will form our thought and behavior patterns.

God is the parent of father, mother and child. While adults assume the physiological task of replenishing the earth, God alone gives the life. The complex life cycle processes that delight scientists have their source in the Creator of all things. As quoted in the Bible, it is in him “we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

We don’t usually fully understand God’s role in our lives until after our earthly parents have done their part. Then using earthly experiences, we can identify God as the perfect parent. He has the tenderness of a mother, always ready to hold us close and calm our fears. He displays the security and authority of the father, having great power and wisdom. He picks us up when we fall and tends to our wounds with maternal care. His paternal discipline is flawless, teaching us to recognize truth and experience humility, all the while building on our character.

I think that truly sincere parents will not only respect but participate in each other’s roles in raising children. I have wonderful daughters, but I wonder how much of their negative experiences could have been spared had my wife and I been more active in appreciating and sharing our individual duties as parents.

Adam was created as male and female, having the chromosome of his soon-to-be mate. It appears to have been God’s plan to begin with a person who was created in his image. But in order to understand his love, we had to be two. We had to continue the creation and nurturing process. Only then could we see and reach for the goal of being like him, never giving up, pressing on to perfection, until we see and know as we are known by him.

George MacDonald writes, “The refusal to look up to God as our Father is the one central wrong in the whole human affair; the inability, the one central misery: whatever serves to clear any difficulty from the way of the recognition of the Father, will more or less undermine every difficulty in life.”

I feel comfortable in calling God father. But I know that he’s so much more. I am more thankful now for my parents than when they were alive. But I have a sure hope that my parents and I, along with my wife, children and grandchildren, will one day rest in the inner circle of God’s amazing love.