Praise & Gratitude

by Rachel Hunt Steenblik

Jersey City, NJ, USA

As One Whom His Mother Comforteth

She showed Her Son

how to mother, so He

could show the world.

Mother Tree

After nourishing, and digging,

and pruning, and dunging,

and weeping, the Lord of the

Vineyard remembered the Mother

Tree.

He brought Her back to Her

children, then Her children

back to Her, grafting branches

into branches. Their togetherness

preserved—natural branches and roots

and the roots of their Mother Tree.

She bore good fruit.

What Nathan Taught Me

He told me, It is odd that

with all the birthing God does—

a Son, a Holy Spirit, a creation—

that God is called ‘Dad.

’Rather than a mother? I asked.

Rather than Mommy, he answered.

Instead of calling God ‘Abba,’

Jesus should have called him, ‘Mommy.’

In the Guise of an Angel

When Jesus

was sorrowful,

and very heavy,

He cried,

Mommy.

She came to Him

from heaven,

strengthening Him.

Tree of Life

When Jesus was on the cross,

His Father might have been

in the farthest reaches of heaven,

for sorrow, and solace.

(We can give Him that.)

His Mother might have been

right there,

branches holding Him—

a weeping willow,

the Tree of Life.

(Originally published in Mother’s Milk: Poems in Search of Heavenly Mother. Republished here with permission from the author.)