Motherhood

Having just found out that our tenth grandchild is on the way I am again called to reflect on the unique spiritual relationship between mother and child. The post of November 22nd spoke of it. While going through my notes I came across this passage from a novel, The Prophet, by Jewish author Sholem Asch. The novel is a fictional account of the life of Deutero-Isaiah, or the second Isaiah.

"And was not God indeed the primal source, the father and mother as it were of all existent things? Did he not pour out his unique lovingkindness on all his creation? And was it not from the source of divine love that every created thing obtained the feeling of mother love? This love is the first and primal condition of the existence of every living thing. And do we not see every day the uniqueness of motherhood revealed in every creature? How do the birds know how to refrain from quenching their hunger or thirst in order to bring the berry or the worm they find upon the ground to the nest built for their young? How often, standing on the banks of the Euphrates, had he not seen the eagle bearing a locust for the open beaks of it's young eaglets who trustingly stretch out their necks not yet covered with down in order to take their food?"