There is a great desire in his heart: a maternal desire to gather a family together. Stephen Cottrell
Hen with chicken, Niko Pirosmani
How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Matthew 23:37
There is a great desire in his heart: a maternal desire to gather a family together. Jesus has become the embodiment of the God who is the eternal loving parent. He is himself the Mother Hen, who wants only to protect and gather together her brood. Stephen Cottrell
Moving beyond the survival dance
In Stanley Spencer's imaginative depiction the curl of Jesus's body captures both the sense of protection and gathering. It does not seem overbearing or intense. Parental longing together with wistfulness exude from him.
I wonder if 'father' and 'mother' remain only as titles, clouded by being theologically charged perhaps and possibly experientially confusing. Might this image move us beyond titles and into the open exploration of how I might allow Jesus to care for me/us as a mother does? If so, what might that look like?
Bill Plotkin writes about the movement in the second half of life from the survival dance to thesacred dance. Might this transition out of survival mode be helped by this sense of care and support - we are not alone. Does our desperate and initially necessary need for independence and automomy, to prove ourselves, ultimately if we are not careful become our achilles heel?