The Mother-like Comfort of God

Isaiah 66. Read the first 16 verses in your hearing. This is what the Lord says.! Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.

Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being, declares the Lord.

This is the one I esteem. He who is humble, and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word, but whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb like one who breaks a dog's neck, whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig's blood, and whoever burns memorial incense like one who worships an idol.

They have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations. So I also will choose harsh treatment for them, and will bring upon them what they dread.

For when I called, no one answered. When I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight, and chose what displeases me. Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word.

Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of my name have said, Let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy, if they will be put to shame. Hear that uproar from the city.

Hear that noise from the temple. It is the sound of the Lord repaying His enemies all they deserve. Before she goes into labor, she gives birth. Before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son.

Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day, or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.

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? Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for you all who love her.

Rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts. You will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.

For this is what the Lord says. I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream. You will nourish and be carried on her arm, and dandled on her knees.

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you, and you will be comforted over Jerusalem. When you see this, your heart will rejoice, and you will flourish like grass.

The hand of the Lord will be made known to His servants, but His fury will be shown to His foes. See, the Lord is coming with fire, and His chariots are like a whirlwind. He will bring down His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.

For with fire and with His sword, the Lord will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord. Well, it is Mother's Day, and so our thoughts naturally turn to mothers.

And though it's not always our practice to break into a series that we're working through, we are going to do so breaking from our study in James. And we're going to turn to a text of Scripture where God Himself turns our thoughts to mothers.

And the reason He directs our attention to mothers is that He wants us to learn something about Himself. Our text for today is Isaiah 66, verse 13a.

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. The passage that was read for us shows us that Israel had sinned against God.

They had chosen their own ways, and their souls delighted in their abominations. So God says, I also will choose harsh treatment for them, and will bring upon them what they dread.

For when I called, no one answered. And when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight, and chose what displeases me. And so He speaks of terrifying judgments that He is going to bring upon those who cling to their sins.

But in the midst of such judgments, He also speaks of sweet mercies for those who repent and humbly return to the Lord and tremble at His word.

And it's to them that He says in verse 13, as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. So in the midst of His wrath being poured out, the Lord has comfort for His people.

And here in chapter 66, when the Lord wants His people to know the kind of comfort that He promises them, He points to a mother comforting her child.

Now, this God is a lion, and He has a fury, as this chapter is spoken, that destroys His enemies.

And yet at the same time, He is a lamb, and has comforts as tender as a mother with her own children. So I want to draw out several lessons from this text today concerning the mother-like comfort of God.

The mother-like comfort of God. We think often of His fatherly compassions. Indeed, the Scriptures speak often of. But there are texts that speak of His mother-like comforts as well.

So the first lesson is that a mother's comfort is the ultimate earthly comfort in all human experience. When it comes to comforting, none can compete with mom.

Just watch who the little ones run to when they're seeking comfort. Not to the nursery worker, not even to dad, but to mother.

Watch who the teenager goes to when in trouble or in need. It's usually mother. At least at our house, it was and is.

Even grown children find mother's shoulder, a most comforting shoulder to cry on. You've seen the clip of that grown man at a business meeting giving a presentation to his colleagues.

And he's up on stage and the lights are on and it's dark out there in the crowd. And at the end, there's no rapturous applause, just two hands clapping. And he says, is that you, mom?

You see, mothers are armed with encouragement that only a mother could have for her son. We sometimes refer to it as a mothering instinct, don't we?

God's equipment to a mother, recognizing that her comfort is the ultimate earthly comfort in our experience. And that motherly compassion is so strong and consistent that by it, wise Solomon solved a difficult case in his kingdom.

You remember the story. Two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One of them said, my Lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was there with me.

The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone. There was no one in the house but the two of us. And during the night, this woman's son died because she lay on him.

So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I, your servant, was asleep. And she put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast.

The next morning, I got up to nurse my son and he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn't the son I had born.

The other woman said, no, the living one is my son. The dead one is yours. But the first one insisted, no, the dead one is yours and the living one is mine.

And so they argued before the king. What are you going to do? You weren't there. The king said, this one says, my son is alive and your son is dead.

While that one says, no, your son is dead and mine is alive. Then the king said, bring me a sword. So they brought a sword for the king and he gave the order, cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.

Now get this. The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, please, my lord, give her the living baby.

Don't kill him. But the other said, neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two. And then the king gave his ruling.

Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him. She is his mother. Now, how did he know that? Well, he understood the intimate bond, the strength of compassion between a mother and her child.

And when he saw it, he knew it. Even so, our Lord, in our text, his choice of a mother's comfort is deeply instructive to us.

It tells us that of all the earthly comfort known to mankind, this is the highest. After all, God does not compare his comfort to some mediocre so-so comfort, but to the unsurpassed comfort of a mother for her child.

Second lesson this morning. This comfort found in mothers is found in perfection in God. The comfort found in mothers is found in perfection in God.

There's a hymn in our hymnal by John Ryland's O Lord, I would delight in thee. And in that hymn, he says, no good in creatures can be found, but may be found in thee.

No good in the creature, but what may be found in thee. So do you find something good in the creature? Any creature? You can know this.

You'll find it also in the creator who put it into the creature. The comfort of a mother.

It's a good thing, isn't it? Where did that come from? Well, follow this stream of mother's comfort back, back, back to its source and you will find this same comfort in God.

You've got some bottled water and it says on the label that it's from a spring up north in Canada. And if it's telling the truth, you can go to that spring and you would find that same water in the spring as is in your bottle because this came from that.

We've simply traced it back to its source. So with a mother's comfort, there's no comfort in the mother, but may be found in God himself.

And that's why God can say as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you. I have this very same kind of motherly comfort in myself.

In fact, mothers got it from me. I have filled the bottle of their heart from my spring. And if you think it tastes good in the bottle, come and drink it directly from the spring.

You see, God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them. There is image of God not only in men, but also in women, not only in fathers, but also in mothers.

There is something of God's likeness stamped upon the mother. Yes, it's marred by sin, as it is in all of us, but in redemption, she puts on the new self, being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator.

So, whatever you find of comfort in a mother, it's but a faint reflection of the comfort that the Lord has for his children. So, what you find imperfectly in the mother, you find perfectly in God himself.

What you find in limited supply in mothers, you find in fullness in Christ. rest. Let's come to the main lesson this morning.

The mother-like comfort of God. Let's just open up this package and ask, what is it like? The mother-like comfort of God. As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.

Well, how does a mother comfort her child? That's our question. That's where we begin. In order to learn something of God, I want to draw out three characteristics of a mother's comfort and let this lead us into a greater understanding of our God in heaven.

First of all, a mother's comfort is marked by tender gentleness. Tender gentleness. The Apostle Paul points to this when he's telling the Thessalonian believers how he and his fellow workers conducted themselves while they were with them.

And he says in 1 Thessalonians 2-7, we were gentle among you like a mother caring for her little children. That's how we were when we were with you.

Gentle like a mother with her children. Watch what happens when little Johnny suffers some injury. He falls off his big wheel and skins his knee.

And so he comes to dad who's outside mowing the yard. And with a quick glance he looks him over once and since there's no blood, he just tells him to suck it up and to quit crying and to be a man.

A man on a big wheel? Be a man. And is it any wonder that Johnny's still crying as he runs inside to find Mommy?

He's looking for comfort. And oh, does he find it. Mother stops what she's doing. she turns off the sweeper. She gets down and picks Johnny up and holds him close to her heart and she starts moaning with him.

Oh, Johnny, what's wrong? Show Mommy your boo-boo. Oh, how it must hurt you. And she kisses away his tears, wipes away his sorrow, gently puts a band-aid on the bloodless wound.

And Johnny runs off and his whole world is put back upright because he knows Mom cares for me.

The comfort, the tender comfort of a mother. And our Lord says to us, as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.

with the tenderness, the gentleness of a mother's touch. And so we get beat up in a world of trials and troubles, leaving us weary, harassed, and burdened down.

And we hear our gentle shepherd's voice. Come to me, John. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. And so we come and we pour out our hearts to him and we find his gentle comfort to put our world right side up.

He cares. What kind of a king do we have, this lion of the tribe of Judah? Well, he comes on Palm Sunday, see your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Paul, when riding to the unruly Corinthians, writes, I appeal to you by the gentleness and meekness of Christ. All who have ever read the Gospels know he is gentle.

All who have ever had dealings with Jesus know of this gentleness. It was written of him in Isaiah 42, a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

There's a reed, kids, it's the thing, that stalk that grows off where there's water, maybe a cattail, but it's that stalk and it can be so brittle and so easily broken, and now that reed is bruised.

a deer has brushed up against a tree and smashed it and bruised it and it's now weak, it's bending, but Jesus will not come along and break it.

He's too gentle for that. And there's the flickering wick, smoldering, it's barely burning, it's just red with a little bit of fire left in it, about to go out and Jesus won't snuff it out.

He's too gentle for that. Who are these reeds and flickering wicks? They're believers of weak and little faith.

Their lives are far from what they should be and they know it and it grieves them. They're but babes in Christ, they're but walking when they should be running. They're full of worries and fears and discouragement so they barely crawl in the Christian life.

But Jesus does not despise them. He does not squash them with hard rebukes. Rather, he treats them with tender gentleness, encouraging and strengthening the flickering faith that they do have rather than haranguing at them for the faith that they don't have.

And have we not found him so in his dealings with us? He comforts and encourages us in all of our trials, in all of our failures.

Yes, with the rational arguments of a wise father, oh, but also with the tender affections and gentleness of a mother with her children. Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?

not once, not twice, but often we hear that, don't we? Was I not there for you last time? Did I not show you how committed I am to you?

Oh, child, I love you and want you to know and to rely on the love I have for you. Couldn't you keep watch with me for but one hour?

Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness. No harshness hast thou and no bitterness. And so as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.

And after a needed spanking, this child is humbled and broken hearted and sobbing out his confession, watch as a mother gently pulls him to her breast and reassures him, of her love for him with her kisses and her hugs.

And so we've fallen again and we've sinned against our God and perhaps in ways that we did just last week as well. And maybe we've known something of his disciplinary love and we've been made to smart for our sin.

And yet when we come to him, he says to us, if you will confess your sins, I will be faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

There's never any question about his forgiveness. The promise is there come, come. He's just that gentle, that tender with us in our falls.

I will heal your waywardness and will love you freely. Listen to David after he's fallen with the case of Bathsheba and Uriah, murder and adultery, and he returns to the Lord in Psalm 51 with that prayer of repentance.

And what does he find waiting for him? A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. do you know that about your God?

Do you know he's that tender? That sins of murder and adultery will be forgiven? And so you come and you know that he doesn't despise, he's too gentle to despise a broken and a contrite.

He will not break the bruised reed, he'll not put out the flickering wick. And there's Peter in all of his self-confidence and his triple denial. of Christ.

And Jesus does not harangue him. He doesn't yell at him. Just a gentle look of wounded love. And Peter's dissolved in tears, isn't he?

That's all it took. You see, we don't get kicked when Jesus comes to deal with us. We don't feel demeaned. Rather, we feel like kicking ourselves for sinning against such tender, gentle love.

Such that Micah looks everywhere in the universe and he says, who is a God like you? Where could he be found? Who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?

You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. And so our text, Isaiah 66, 13, is a text.

After given to Israel, after being sorely disciplined for turning their back on God, God called to them and they did not answer. God said, do this and they said, I didn't hear you. That's how they lived.

And yet, he promises them, if they would but humbly come and tremble at his word, as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.

Frederick Faber has us saying, no earthly father loves like thee, no mother hath so mild, bears and forbears, as thou hast done with me, thy sinful child.

Mother-like comfort is gentle. Secondly, a mother's comfort is marked by genuine sympathy. How do you explain a mother's sympathy?

Well, the word sympathy is a compound word that means to feel with, to suffer with. She feels with the child.

She hurts to see them hurting. She rejoices to see them rejoicing. rejoicing. And I should think that for every tear that a mother sheds for her own grief, she sheds ten for the griefs of her children.

Out of a heart that sympathizes with her children and what they're going through. The grief is really not her own directly.

it's her child's. But because her child's therefore hers by sympathy. And it's her ability to sympathize with her children that makes them run so quickly to her.

That's what makes her shoulder, the shoulder of choice to cry on. The son that doesn't make the all-star team, the daughter that gets dumped by her heart throb. They find their way to mother whose sympathy is so inviting and they come and open their hearts to her.

She understands. She cares. Where did moms get that sympathy? Well, they got it from the one who made her, from the fountain of sympathy, from the spring who filled her bottle, and who in carrying our sorrows became the man of sorrows.

not for sorrows of his own, but for our sorrows, our griefs that he carried. The one who himself is a sympathetic high priest to his people, who during his days on earth wept with those who wept, and who still sympathizes today.

We have that passage in Hebrews chapter 2 and Hebrews 4. It's one of the reasons Jesus, the eternal son of God, became a man, that he might sympathize with us as people.

He had to be made like his brothers in every way, Hebrews 2. 17, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

And because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.

Hebrews 4. 15, uniquely qualified to sympathize with us because he was made like us in every way, sin only accepted. Didn't take our sin, but he took our weakness. He became like us in every other way.

A couple weeks ago at the General Assembly in Papillion, Nebraska, Ramon Perron, the church planter in Quebec, told us that there is something in music called sympathetic resonance.

It's the physical phenomenon whereby one vibrating object, such as a string, can cause another to vibrate also without any physical contact between the two of them.

So you have two pianos back to back, and you strike a key on piano number one, and though you haven't struck any of the keys on piano number two, some of its keys gently respond and begin to vibrate.

Sympathetic resonance. And so the Son of God left the glories of heaven and became a man like us in every way.

Sin only accepted in order that he might be able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses. And so when you are struck and your heart quivers, his own heart in heaven gently vibrates with a fellow feeling matching your own.

An echo of yours, sympathy, feeling what you're feeling. That's our Savior. So whatever you're going through, he's been there.

there's no note on the whole keyboard of human experience. All 88 notes have the counterpart in the blessed Jesus.

And when your note is struck, he sympathizes with you, brother. He sympathizes with you, sister. You've been laid off, your income dwindling.

Don't forget he was poor and homeless. He had no place of his own to lay his head. He was dependent upon his father in heaven. He would not use his own divine powers to provide his physical sustenance.

So he's been without food 40 days and 40 nights and he's tempted to change the stones into bread and eat. No, he will not do that. He has become like us in every way. We don't get a cop out by just making bread out of stones.

Jesus won't use his divine powers like that either, but he will wait on his father to speak the word of blessing and he will live. He became like us that he might sympathize with us.

He knows he cares. He's touched. His heart vibrates with yours in every situation in life in all their distress.

He too was distressed. Isaiah 63 9. So go to him, Hebrews says. Hebrews 4 16. So go to him.

Let us then approach the throne of grace where this sympathetic Jesus reigns. Let's go to him with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

because the one that sympathizes and knows exactly what we're going through has just the grace that we need, just the mercy that we need, tailor made for us.

Is a mother's comfort marked by sympathy? Jesus says that's how I will comfort you. A mother's comfort is gentle, it's sympathetic, and thirdly, it's marked by self-denying love.

love. There's a mother comforting her children, her child, even when he's too young to remember it after he grows up.

Doesn't even know half of the self-denying love that his mother's expended on him, denying herself sleep in order to rise and feed and change and hold her baby. Many a night, her baby's cry pulled her out of her warm bed to tend to his need.

How many times she denied her own desires as he was growing up in order to buy things for him. She denied things that she could have bought for herself.

And her self-denial didn't end when they started school. The son comes home and announces he needs 20 sack lunches for his friends tomorrow evening as if a mother has nothing else to do but pack lunches for the team.

And oh, by the way, I need to be picked up after school and taken to this field and the daughter chimes in, Mom, I need a new folder for math class tomorrow. And one by one, dozens of times a week, a mother's plans for herself get demoted, bumped down to the bottom, denying herself out of love for her own children.

And when they're sick, she's with them through the night, denying herself sleep, staying by their side, waiting on them, praying for them, doing anything to bring comfort to them.

How she hates to see her children suffer. Perhaps at a hospital, watching her daughter struggling with some cancer, some disease, how many mothers would gladly trade places with their daughter if only her daughter could be relieved of the suffering.

And I ask you, where did she get that? From the one who, in order to bring relief to his children, really did trade places with them.

For it was while we were yet sinners. Without hope, without help, Christ died for the ungodly. He died instead of the ungodly.

He died in place of the ungodly. We were guilty. We had sinned against God. We had deserved his wrath, his condemnation, eternal, infinite wrath, hell forever.

And Jesus said, I will suffer in his place. And so Christ died for sin, once for all, the righteous, for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.

He traded places with us. In our place, condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah. What a Savior.

Think of the self-denial of God the Father. He gave up his one and only Son to the cross where he would have to pour out infinite wrath on his own Son, that whoever believes on him might not perish but have everlasting life.

It was costly love for the Father to bring us the comforts of a mother's self-denying love, eternal life. God the Father made him, that is his one and only Son, who had no sin, to be sin for us, in place of us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He takes the curses that we deserved, that we might know the blessings that Christ deserved. God the Son laid down his life for you.

He laid it down, that's voluntarily, willingly. He went to the cross more willingly than any mother ever got out of her bed to feed her child in his infant days.

Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, willingly became poor that you through his poverty might be made rich. For Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us instead of us in our place condemned he stood.

And so he trades places with us. Yes, this comfort that God was promising in the end of Isaiah 66, where does it come from?

How does it get from God to us? Chapter 53 tells us the suffering servant, the suffering servant brings this blessing, this self-denying love to us.

He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all like sheep had gone astray, we had turned each one to his own way, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Traded places with us.

Now I ask you, if a mother's comfort is marked by self-denying love, by genuine sympathy and tender gentleness, and what we find in her is found in perfection in our God.

One last lesson, and we're done. Fourthly, God's comfort is even more sure than a mother's comfort.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 49. Verse Verse Verse Verse Verse The prophet Isaiah has had to prophesy judgment and woe upon the nation of Israel for their stubborn rebellion and turning away from the Lord.

And Babylon would be the rod that the Lord used to take them away in captivity. But here in chapter 49, the prophet also speaks of a day when Israel would be restored to the land.

And the promises of restoration are so rich and full that they far outstrip anything that happened when Israel was brought from captivity in Babylon back into Palestine.

The things promised point forward to Messiah. The Christ's reign and when he came his salvation not from captivity in Babylon but from captivity and sin and how he would bring his people into the freedom and into the eternal bliss of heaven.

And so in considering yes the temporal blessing of bringing Israel back from Babylon but the far greater blessing of bringing all of his people Jews and Gentiles from whatever far place in sin the far country they roamed in bringing them back to himself!

There's nothing but joy now being prophesied. Verse 13 Shout for joy O heavens rejoice O earth burst into song O mountains for the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

You see his compassion for his people moves him to act on their behalf. He will bring them back in he will show them kindness. Oh but they respond to such amazing promises with utter unbelief and despondency.

Verse 14 But Zion said the Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me. Things were so bad that even the Lord's promised compassion falls on deaf ears.

Their lives are so ruined. Their land is so decimated that they cannot believe that their circumstances could ever change to such an extent as the prophet is promising.

Oh no, not us. The Lord has forsaken and forgotten us. Child of God, if you ever get into that condition, and I should think we all get into that more often than perhaps we admit, the Lord has forsaken me.

He has forgotten me. These words were written for your comfort just then when everything seems to be going against you. Irreversible health problems, relationship problems, income problems, and the Lord and his help are nowhere in sight, and it looks like he's forsaken you, and it looks like he's forgotten you.

Here's the word for you then. And notice the Lord turns again to the picture of the mother with her child and appeals to her compassion and tender gentleness for the child of her womb.

Verse 15, can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born?!!

That mother with such gentleness and sympathy and self-denying love, could she forget her child?

Though she may forget, I will not forget you. If even the most intimate bond of mother and child is broken, such that she forgets, even the strongest of earthly comforts flee, mine won't.

Even if a mother's compassions fizzle out, mine never, they are new every morning, she may forget, but not I. See, verse 16, I've engraved you on the palms of my hands, your walls are ever before me.

Never a time when you are out of my sight, out of my mind, your walls are ever before me. And it takes the New Testament to unfold how his people have been engraved with wounds upon the palms of the hands of God.

Five bleeding wounds he bears received on Calvary, they pour effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Rich wounds yet visible above in beauty glorified.

We sang it this morning, didn't we? My name from the palms of his hand, eternity will not erase. Impressed on his heart, it remains in marks of indelible grace.

Yes, I to the end shall endure as sure as the earnest is given more happy but not more secure glorified spirits in heaven. He will not forget.

He cannot forget and fail to have compassion on the least of those for whom he bore the nails. His compassion transcends the best that earth can offer, even that of a mother for her own baby.

Hear the comfort. Drink it in this morning. Store it up for the day of need. though she forget I will not forget you.

see not everyone has had a happy experience with moms though she may forget. There are mothers that are less than this picture of comfort that we've had drawn for us this morning.

It is the rule the norm that some may even forsake their children under pressure and under temptation and the Lord simply uses the strength of that bond that even if it should crumble to reinforce this is one way that my tender love is not like the mother it cannot fail but will go on forever and ever whatever we've known from earthly mothers in Christ we can say with confidence as David says in Psalm 27 though my father and mother for sake me the Lord will receive me here's a God for mothers is a your God here's a God for fathers is a your God dads here's a God for children for the youngest among us is he your God here's a God for the oldest among us a

God with mother like compassion let's go to him in prayer my God how wonderful you are the creator of the ends of the earth the one who speaks in all things jump the one whose wrath is as great as the fear that is due him and yet you deal with your own with such gentleness with such sympathy and with such self denying love oh teach us teach us more of yourself even as we've tasted of these things in our mothers and help us to drink straight from the fountain and worship you today we ask in Jesus name amen amen