God our Mother: Sofia in the Christian tradition:
In the ancient Christian tradition, even in the time of the Old Testament, she is known as the feminine face of God. So easily we look to God only as father, with all the gifts of a father. Might be our whole life we have only prayed to God as our father, but what about God as our Mother? God has also the deepest qualities as a Mother. We find beautiful texts about this in the Old Testament. See: Ps. 131, Yes 66, 13, Hosea 11,3-4, Yes 49, 15, Yes 42.14
So how will it change our experience of God, if we pray to God as our Mother?
Sofia is the partner of God, the feminine face of God. God is mother to us, in the abundance of creation, in the care of creation, in the Earth that sustains us, day by day in our living. Sofia is the Mother of creation.
Sofia is at the side of the Creator from the beginning.
In the tradition of Israel we learn that to create is to draw a circle, to set boundaries. The Bible says that in the beginning there was Chaos, but the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. In the story of creation we learn that God created by separation of the land and the water.
You see this in the book Wisdom, 8, 22-39. Just read and meditate this passage.
“Yahweh created me, (Sofia, Wisdom), first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works. From everlasting I was firmly set, before the earth came into being….
……I was beside the master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence, at play everywhere on his earth delighting to be with the children of men”…
When you are given the name Sofia, you are gifted with the deep wisdom that is in creation.
We are given eyes to see and a heart to and a mind to understand. We are gifted with the wisdom in creation, with cosmic wisdom coming from the heart of the creator. As long as we can be so deeply touched by the beauty of creation, the goodness of God in every part of creation, we are not in Ego, but open to the deep wisdom of God as a gift.
Then it is our call to let others share in this wisdom, let others feel our deep love and compassion for all of life and your power to fight for all life.
God and Sofia work together, then in the Beginning and in our days, now creation is so threatened. Also now Sofia has to fight with God against the present and future chaos, because the present humans have lost wisdom.
Sofia has two sides in herself: the side that is directed to the dark knowing, the knowing of eternal truth. She knows the truth, not because someone told her, but because she is deeply connected with the creative power of God. And there is that side that is very much directed to everything around her. She knows the situation of creation at his moment…she can feel the deep pain of creation. She will defend life with her whole being.
Sofia, Wisdom the source of all life. She is cosmic energy. She is wind, breath. Sofia is beginning. She is the feminine force in the Cosmos, she gives birth. Sofia is mother, sister, bride, daughter.. all expressions of the feminine power.
In Sofia we see the feminine face of God, the Most High, the Father. She is the Mother of God, like Maria is the Mother of Jesus. We see the Mother of God in the beauty of creation, in the fertility of creation, in how creation is caring as a Mother for every creature. Not only for the humans. Sofia makes it possible that God can be Mother of all that is alive…
Sofia is from before the Beginning.
She will help us to know, who we you are…..from the Beginning in Gods dream…called to life and given the call to help God to be (a) mother in creation and for creation…
Sofia is God’s sharing of Himself with all creatures. She is in all things, like the air receiving the sunlight. In her all creatures have their full life… She is the love that unites everything in creation…
She remains unseen, glimpsed only by a few…
Sofia is the mercy of God in us.
She does the work of forgiving, the work of transformation from brightness to brightness.
Sofia, show yourself to us, that we may see you in the beauty of creation.
Unveil your mystery to us, in our understanding of the order in all of creation.
Help us to connect with your power to create…
Be a compassionate presence in us to our broken creation.
Elly Verrijt, May 2017
Inspired by Van Sofia tot Maria. The rebirth of the Hidden Mother in the 21st century
Anine van der Meer ( in Dutch) ISBN 978 90 77408 55 1