This was tweeted by the ELCA's official account on April 28:
Mother God, you have fed us with the nourishment of your spiritual food. Raise us up into salvation and rid us of our bitterness, so that we may share the sweetness of your holy word with all the world.
Are you praising or criticizing? Why did you start the discussion?
The Bible uses mother images in terms of God. Why shouldn't we?
Numbers 11:12-13 —
Did I conceive all these people?
Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!'
Deuteronomy 32:18 —
You deserted the Rock,
who bore you;
you forgot
the God who gave you birth.
Job 38:28-30 —
Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?
Psalm 90:2 CEB
Before the mountains were born,
before
you birthed the earth and the inhabited world -
from forever in the past to forever in the future, you are God.
Psalm 131:2 —
But I have calmed myself
and quieted my ambitions.
I am like a weaned child with
its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
Isaiah 49:15 —
"Can a
mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the
child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
Isaiah 66:9 —
"Do I bring to the moment of birth
and not give delivery?" says the Lord"Do I close up the womb
when I bring to delivery?" says your God.
While not certain, the Hebrew phrase
El Shaddai (אֵל שַׁדַּי) may be related to the word for
(female) breast shad (שַׁד). The CEB suggests that it could be "God of the mountains."
P.S. The Tetons are named for the French word for breast.