First of all it should be clear from my recent post that God, according to the Baha’i Writings, is neither a man nor a woman but transcendent above all names and attributes.  However, I am fascinated by the idea that God was once a woman and then became a man.   Who is God as a woman?   Why do we need Her back again?

About 15 years ago I was on a trip in northern Alberta to a small city called Ft. Vermillion to do some work with some of the Cree people there.   So one afternoon we drove out to visit an elder who told us a very remarkable hunting story.   It seems that two men went out one day to hunt for some moose.  They loaded up their backpacks with some extra meat and rifles before leaving for the hunt.  Then the elder surprised us by telling us that they will never find a moose.   We were left in our western materialistic minds sitting there wondering why.   He says that they won’t find a moose because they don’t need to find one.  They already have meat.    If they needed meat, it would show up, but they don’t need it so it doesn’t.

When God was our mother, this is how we used to think.   We believed that we would be supported and cared for.  The whale hunters on the coast of British Columbia used to describe whaling as paddling out and waiting for whales to arrive rather than searching for whales.    Thinking of  God as our mother in no way negates the idea of God as our father.  God as a father gives us the qualities of self reliance and justice, but it seems to me that when God became a man, the qualities associated with mothers left religion and society.

I mean think about it.  When we think of a CEO, do we think of him with qualities of a father or of a mother?   Being a mother means being supportive and nurturing, overlooking mistakes, and giving lots of encouragement.   Do we think that our nations’ leaders should have these motherly qualities or do we persist in thinking that the  leaders are those with only qualities associated with fathers?

The mother is the first educator.  The life of every new born babe depends upon his mother’s milk.  Through a strong bonding with his mother, the child learns to trust.   So with that in mind I believe it is time to think of our communities as being more motherly, as more nurturing and more encouraging.