The Lord goes forth like a soldier; like a warrior they stir up their fury; they cry out; they shout aloud; they show themselves mighty against their foes. For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant. I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands and dry up the pools.
This passage is very unique: we have very few images of God in the Bible that describe God as a mother warrior.
I do not have children, so I cannot speak for motherhood myself. Yet, I have many mothers around me.
And what I have witnessed is that mothers tend to let their children explore the world and get first-hand knowledge, but when someone crosses the boundary of “normal” developmental hurt, mothers go into warrior mode.
I know this woman from Venezuela who walked for three months across jungles and deserts and rivers and dangerous cities to bring her three children to safety in the United States while the father was paralyzed by fear.
The mother warrior will do anything for her children; she won’t let her children down. We can count on her when we need her.
Whether we experienced from our own mothers or other warrior women in our lives, the experience of someone fighting on our behalf can be liberating. At its very core, it means we're worth fighting for.
Let that sink in for a moment, you are worth laying waste to mountains over.
As we head into the weekend, how might you honor your value by doing simple things to honor another's value?
-- Claudia Aguilar Rubalcava
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