Like those who lift infants to their cheeks…

God tells the prophet Hosea, “I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks.^* I bent down to them and fed them” (Hosea 11:4). God’s relationship with creation is like a parent who loves a child. God is like a father who tenderly lifts an infant to his cheek. God is like a mother who has bent down to feed her child.

The language and imagery that Hosea uses to describe God’s relationship to Israel, God’s beloved child, is the same kind of language we use when we talk about our beloved child or children. We lift infants to our cheeks, kissing and smelling their heads. We bend down to feed our little ones, caring for their every need. We weep and mourn when we suffer their absence or loss.

As a parent, God feels for God’s children as you feel for your child. It is a bond that can never be broken. Throughout the Prophets, of which Hosea is one, God mourns deeply for the loss of God’s child, Israel. God wonders, “How can I give you up? How can I hand you over? How can I let you be devastated? How can I let you be destroyed?” At the thought of losing Israel, God’s heart recoils. So do our hearts recoil at the loss of a child.

The image of God as a parent offers a connection, a relation to you as a parent, especially as a parent who has suffered the loss of a child. You can relate to God’s heartache; God’s heartache relates to you. You understand what it means to have your heart recoil, to have your heart turn and shrink within you.

And yet, you are also a child, God’s child, one whom God lifts to God’s cheeks, one to whom God bends down to feed. As you weep, God weeps with you because you are God’s own child. Your grief matters to God. God knows your loss and feels your heartache. God isn’t afraid of your pain for God has felt that very pain. God is with you in your loss.