Daily Devotionals

Our Daily Homily - Volume 3

Devotional: January 12th

Isaiah 66:13—As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.

There is the mother nature as well as that of the father in God. We are familiar with the thought of the Divine Fatherhood; let us not forget the Divine Motherhood. All the soft, gentle touches of mother’s hand, unlike any other hands; all the tender pleading, yearning affection; all the utter selflessness, that never wrecks what it expends for the objects of its solicitude, are equally in God. But as men get mad with drink and sin, and refuse the sweet mother-love which would gather them, until worn-out and weary they come back to it wrecked and forlorn, so we have drifted from God’s mother-heart, getting to ourselves pain and loss, and missing its exquisite solace. Fools that we are!

Come back to it, children! Like wayward runaway babes, at the end of the long summer’s day, who, shamefaced and sorrowful, with their torn clothes and grimy faces, hardly dare present themselves to those tender eyes, and yet have no alternative, and know that they may count on the most tender reception. So come back to Him. He will receive, forgive, cleanse, comfort.

A mother’s comfort! Estimate it at its full. Remember how your mother comforted you, as a little child; as a man at the death of your young wife; as a maiden when love had disappointed. How much more God! May we not then address to God’s tender heart those most exquisite words:—

"Neither love me for

Thine own dear pity’s wiping my cheeks dry,

Since one might well forget to weep who bore

Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby;

But love me for love’s sake, that evermore

Thou mayst love on through love’s eternity."