00:00So who agrees that we serve a good God and that he's a good, good father, right? Yes, yes. Well, one day he showed me something really interesting. In Genesis 127, it says, so God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. So God made both male and female in his image. I believe that in order to grasp the whole picture of who our God is, that we need to understand not only the male attributes of him as a father, but also the female attributes that reflect his character. So I think that we need to look at special qualities of mothers in particular in order to get the full character of who God is. So today I want to share with you eight descriptions that are unique to mothers that I feel might help you look at the Lord with a deeper understanding. So number one, if you're keeping notes, it's in the app. My kids looked at the notes this morning, they're like, oh, you're talking a long time, mom. I promise I won't talk that long. Number one, point number one, God is a life giver. So the day I had my first child was one of the most joyous days of my entire life, and I can just remember holding him in my arms and looking into his big brown eyes and thinking I could never love him more than I did at that very moment. But I soon discovered I was wrong. Everything that he did, every milestone that he hit, every new adventure, I just loved him more and more. Well, I was about five, he was about two years old when I found out I was expecting my second child. And while I was excited about that, I was really nervous. I thought, okay, there's no way that I'm going to love this second child as much as I'm going to love my first child. So he's going to live his whole life being second best. Like, he's going to always know he's like the runner-up child, right? Like, I can't love him as much, there's no way. And so I was really concerned for him. And so I would pray like, God, help me love him. Well, when I was about five months pregnant, I felt him move inside my womb for the first time, and all those fears went away. And I just knew that he was going to be okay, and I don't know how God does it, but I just knew that I was not going to run out of love for him and that his life would not be ruined because of it. And I think that God's love is very much like that. We often wonder, how can God love the billions of people that are in this earth? We are called his children because he sees us as his. In 1 John 3.1, it says, see what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God. The love that God has for us is the same kind of love that a mother has for her children. And if I as a mom can love all of those children, right, and God is so much bigger than me, how could I question that he could love every person on earth? Because we serve a God who is in the business of multiplication,
03:00not division, right? So his love is not divided between all of us, it is multiplied by all of us. In Luke 12.7, it says, Jesus tells us that God loves us so much he has numbered the hairs on our head. It does not say he knows how many hairs we have on his head. It says he has taken the time to number them. I just don't think that I could have comprehended the depth of that love until I had my own children. I think if I could count the hairs on their head, I would, right? Just like I knew that my second born would be okay before he was born, God knew that about you too. In fact, he knew that before you were even formed in your mother's womb. I find it funny that in the English language we have one word for love. Okay, there's lots of meanings for love. We can love our parents, we can love cheeseburgers, there's one word. Well, it's not that way in scripture. In the Bible, there are lots of different words for the different types of love that we have, and my favorite of those is agape. Agape love. And this agape love describes the love that God has for us. It is sacrificial, selfless, and unconditional. It is genuine, unrestricted, and unquestionable, and there is nothing that can stop God's love for us. I love Romans 8, verse 38 and 39. I have to read it. It says, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So good. We cannot begin to understand this type of love, but I believe the closest thing we have on earth is a mother's love for her children, because God is a life giver. Okay, moms are the only beings on earth who physically have experienced this same act. Having a tiny human being growing inside of your body and giving birth is something that no one else has had the privilege of going through. And it creates a bond that is unexplainable. It takes you just one step closer to understanding the love that God has for you. But if you're a woman who has never given birth, our God is so good and so incredible and so powerful