As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 66:13
Dear members and friends,
There is a unique power in a mother’s care; a quiet, patient tenderness that reaches a child beyond words. We often think of comfort as a soft, passive thing, but its roots tell a different story. The word “comfort” comes from the Latin confortare, which means “to strengthen greatly.” It is the experience of being held, reassured, and literally “made strong again” by being known.
In Isaiah 66:13, this profound human experience is lifted into the language of faith: “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” The prophet doesn’t reach for images of distant authority or abstract power. Instead, he describes Divine Love as something intimate, experiential, and restorative, the kind of love that meets us in our vulnerability and gives us the strength to stand and move on. Jesus echoes this same reality in Matthew 23:37, where He longs to gather people “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” Here again, Divine Love is expressed as protection and nearness. It is a love that gathers what is scattered and shelters what is fragile.
Emanuel Swedenborg explains these images as correspondences. A mother’s love for her child is one of the clearest natural reflections of the Lord’s mercy. Swedenborg writes that Divine mercy is naturally compared to a mother’s love because it points to how God cares for our inner life. Spiritually, we all carry childlike states within us—moments of uncertainty and need. At times, our faith can feel worn thin. In those moments, what we need isn’t a complex argument or a technical explanation, but the restorative strengthening that comes from being held together when we feel ourselves falling apart.
Swedenborg emphasizes that true comfort is not merely emotional relief, but the peace that follows an inner struggle. It is the quiet restoration of the heart that happens once a trial has passed. Like a mother’s care, it often arrives in ways that are gentle and easily overlooked.
On Mother’s Day, we give thanks for the love we have received through the mothers and mother-figures in our lives. At the same time, we are invited to see more deeply, to recognize in that tenderness a reflection of the Divine. The Lord does more than just guide or teach us; He gathers, sustains, and strengthens us with a love that never fails.
“As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.”
Blessings,
Rev. Junchol Lee