Mother - God

I was struck yesterday during our prayer time at our early service on Mother's Day. The prayer lifted up how we pray "Our Father," but also how like our mother God is. I even preached that God's heart is very much like the heart of a mother. The ideal mother loves her children unconditionally and this is part of who God is. Wesleyan's usually focus on God's love and grace. We believe those are the foundation of who God is. We might also say those are the foundation for the ideal mother as well.
I believe men and fathers also give love and grace, but that is often not thought of as their primary qualities. And what struck me yesterday after going on about how much like our mother God is, we then went into praying "Our Father."
It is interesting how we can get so stuck on words. For some changing the Lord's Prayer by saying, "Our Mother" would be blasphemy. I admit, even to me, it feels strange to do that, but I do not think God would be offended. Using father or mother to describe God only points to a part of who God is. God is indescribable and uncontainable in words and maybe we need to get used to being free to express how God has reached out to us.
The other piece of this is that our faith seems to more often connect with women. For some reason men often are hesitant to share about their faith and be open to what God is doing. I am still wrestling with why this is, although I think part of it is that men are generally less connected to mushy, loving God ideas that we often communicate as the church. Maybe we need to give some attention to God deserving our respect and his power. That may be more of what men are looking for.
Well, a couple of pretty early thoughts from me this morning. Let me know your thoughts. I still need dig a little deeper into these and pray through them little more. Let us pray, "Our Mother..."