To nurse a baby at the breast is instinctive. It’s natural. It’s normal. But did you know it is also glorious? Society disdains the beautiful role of mothers, but in the Bible, God the creator of mankind, reveals His ultimate plan.
Isaiah 66:10-14 likens Jerusalem to a nursing mother. As we read, we get a glimpse of God’s plan for breastfeeding mothers. This passage speaks of how the breast satisfies, comforts, consoles, delights, and gives peace. It also describes the nursing breasts as “the abundance of her glory.” The HCSB translates it: “Drink deeply and delight yourselves from her glorious breasts.”
Isaiah 49 speaks of the restoration of Zion. Allegorically, verse 23 speaks of nursing mothers and says that “queens” will be “thy nursing mothers.” Breastfeeding is elevated to queenship. You are a queen when you nurse your little babe.
I love the way Sarah describes her motherhood. She could have talked about playing with her baby, teaching her baby, and all the things required to care for him. Instead, she talks about breastfeeding. Genesis 21:7: “And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children su_ck? For I have born him a son in his old age.”
We also read a similar description about Hannah. After crying out in agony for a baby at the temple in Shiloh, God blessed Hannah and she conceived. The next year she didn’t go up to the temple because she wanted to stay home with her baby. 1 Samuel 1:23 says: “And the woman abode, and gave her son su_ck until she weaned him” after which she took him to the temple. It doesn’t say that she stayed home to care for her baby and enjoy all the lovely mothering moments. Instead the Bible describes these years (maybe three to five years) as a breastfeeding mother.
Are you nursing your baby? Dear mother, you are doing a great thing. A queenly thing. A glorious thing.
Enjoy the nursing moments (and hours) with your baby today (and tonight). Don’t try to wean your baby too soon. Nursing is mothering.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Painting: La famille Jakob Smits, entre 1880 et 1928 Aquarelle (?) Musée Jakob Smits, Mol, Belgique