God Loves Single Mothers

Among the many Bible stories about political, military, and religious leaders, we find a surprising number of stories about ordinary people, including single mothers who had much less power and far fewer options than single fathers in the ancient Near East. Bible stories often show single mums in dire circumstances, but the same stories also show God’s amazing compassion, provision, and blessing for them.

Hagar (Genesis 21): When Abraham cast out Hagar and their child Ishmael after the birth of Isaac, they soon ran out of water in a barren desert, and she wept as she expected both of them to die. God heard their cries, and not only provided them water. He also promised that he would make Ishmael into a great nation.

Ruth: When Naomi returned from Moab to her homeland of Judah with her daughter-in-law Ruth after the death of her husband and both her sons, she told everyone to call her Mara (meaning ‘bitter’) because ‘the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.’ However, we see how God’s commands in the law of Moses to protect widows and foreigners resulted in provision and blessing for them. Ruth not only provided for herself and Naomi by gleaning after the reapers during the barley harvest. By marrying Boaz, Ruth and her children as well as Naomi were included in the future royal line of King David.

Widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17): Jesus said in Luke 4:25-26, ‘There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon (enemy territory), to a woman who was a widow.’ This widow was preparing her last meal with her son before they died of starvation, but God miraculously provided an ongoing supply of bread flour and oil in her jars for many days until it began raining again. When God brought her son back to life through Elijah some time later, it says that he ‘delivered him to his mother’ (which is similar to what Jesus did after healing the dead son of a widow in Luke 7). In both cases, God’s miraculous intervention was primarily for the sake of the mother.

Mary, mother of Jesus: Jesus grew up in a family where his father Joseph wasn’t present at some point. While Jesus was suffering the most excruciating death imaginable, he demonstrated compassion for his mother who was witnessing the death of her son. He said in John 19:26, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ (referring to his disciple John). It says ‘from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.’

When we see stories of single mothers in the Bible, we can expect great suffering as well as tremendous divine provision and blessing. God speaks of his care for the ‘fatherless and widow’ many times in Scripture and warns of judgment against those who would treat them unjustly. God not only cares for their physical and security needs, he also establishes them in a family story much larger than themselves. Those who follow Jesus are a part of God’s family, and are heirs of his inbreaking kingdom that continues to transform our world in amazing ways!

This reflection introduces the Sunday teaching on 9th May about singleness. You can listen to it below.