Like a MotherShembull

I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs. (Hosea 13:8)

I have rarely felt like much of a fierce wild animal; by nature, I'm not particularly forceful, and I don't get into physical fights! But when my children were born, I felt a fierce protectiveness rise in me. 

Most of the time I don't need it, but it's there, waiting for me. When my daughter struggled to learn to read and I needed to advocate for more help, the Mama Bear in my heart came to life. When my son developed a deep fear of "bad guys" breaking into our house, I felt that Mama Bear roar in my throat as I promised to protect him. 

But I have also felt that fierce love in situations where my children were turning towards unhealthy friends or behaviors, when I felt the need to tear a device out of their hands (I didn't; instead we talked and made plans together), or I was tempted to forbid them to see that friend ever again. My children are still young, but I know from other mothers that conversations and discipline around more dangerous things, like drugs and alcohol, can provoke that same fierce protective love. 

This is the kind of love described in Hosea 13:4-8. The passage describes the ways that God will defend Israel. However, God is promising to protect Israel not from outside invaders, but from Israel's own faithlessness and sin. The book of Hosea is one long call for God's people to turn back to him. His fierce love is so great, he will do anything to protect his people from the things that turn them away from him, and turn towards dangerous other gods. 

This passage isn't a picture of a nurturing mama, cuddled up with her children.  It is the picture of a fiercely protective mother bear fighting off all comers, and as Hosea describes so well, a mother bear who needs to protect her cubs is dangerous to anything that would threaten them.  

As you take time to read and reflect today, I encourage you to consider the things that are pulling you away from God's great love. Commit yourself and your children into God's fiercely protective, loving hands.