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Barren Womb, Open Hands


Hosea 9:14

Give them, O Lord—

    what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

    and dry breasts.

 

Thought for the day – Barren Womb, Open Hands

Today’s thought is a Deb takeover


As a woman, as a mother this passage is a hard read. I remember, a few years after we had adopted my ex-sister-in-law gave me a very belated adoption congratulations card, and the only words she had written in it were the words from this verse. At the time I was furious. So furious that I ripped the card up. Because to be reminded that as a woman my body had failed me, even though we had children through adoption was more painful than I can put into words.

I guess, contextually, the inability to have children way back when Hosea was writing was more significant than now, when women aren’t tied to being a mother and housewife. But it is still significant. Significant because family relationships today are still complicated - both joyful and hurtful. I’m not sure about this verse and its place in the bible. I’m not a theologian. I haven’t been to bible college, I’ve not studied, nor am I a minister. But I do know I am human. I know that God doesn’t wish harm on anyone, and that harm is people led. The verse sounds like a war cry, or the shout of an anguished man who is trying to work things out. I know that my God is big enough to take all of my questions, doubts, tears in the middle of the night, swearing and cries of anguish. If God is big enough to shoulder Hosea’s cries, then he is also wonderful and patient enough to listen to my rantings and – if I take the time to listen – help sort my brain out. 

This blog post is part of the Walking the Way Podcast series. All views expressed in this essay are those of the author. This essay is freely available under Creative Commons License with Attribution-ShareAlike, allowing users to share it in other mediums/formats and adapt/translate the content as long as an attribution link, indication of changes, and the same Creative Commons License applies to that material.

 

This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

 

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