A Mother’s Voice

May 11, 2025 homily by Pastor Galen on Psalm 23 and John 10:14-18

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me” (John 10:14).

A Mother’s Voice

Scientific studies have shown that even before birth, babies can recognize the sound of their mother’s voice and distinguish it from other voices.

In 2003, a study conducted by Canadian and Chinese researchers found that baby’s brains are learning speech patterns and laying the groundwork for language acquisition while they are still in their mother’s womb. 

To conduct the study, scientists tested 60 women in the final stages of pregnancy. All the mothers were recorded as they read a poem out loud. Then the mothers were divided into two groups. Half of the fetuses heard the recording of their own mother. The other half heard another mother, not their own. In both cases, hearing the poem read out loud caused a change in the baby’s heart rate. The heart rate of the unborn babies who heard their own mother’s voice got faster, whereas the heart rate of those who heard a voice other than their mother’s actually slowed down!

Several years later, a study funded by the National Institute of Health found that babies in the womb actively listen to their mother’s voice during the last ten weeks of pregnancy, and that at birth they can distinguish between the sound of their mother’s native language and a foreign language!

But it’s not just babies who learn to recognize their mother’s voice. It has been my observation that mothers too learn to recognize the sound of their baby’s cry very soon after their baby is born—and they can even distinguish their own baby’s cries from the cries of other babies. Not only that, but when our children were infants, my wife could listen to our baby’s cries and determine what our baby needed. She could tell whether our baby was hungry, needed to be burped, was too hot, or just uncomfortable. And she knew exactly how to comfort our babies—whereas I was often at a loss to know what they needed or wanted.

The Good Shepherd

In Psalm 23, David, who was a shepherd before he became a king, imagines himself as a sheep and he imagines God as his shepherd, looking out for him, providing for his needs, and protecting him from danger. In John 10, Jesus picks up this shepherd imagery, saying, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me” (John 10:14), and “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). 

As our Good Shepherd, Jesus can care for us and provide for us because he knows us deeply and intimately. He knows our innermost thoughts and the longings of our hearts. He knows what we need even before we ask — even when we don’t have the words to articulate what we need. Jesus is like a mother who can determine what her baby needs based on the specific intonation of her baby’s cry, or like a shepherd who instinctively knows what the sheep need and leads them to green pastures and still waters.

God as Our Shepherd

The imagery of shepherding is used throughout the Bible to describe God’s care for us. 

In Genesis 48, as Jacob, on his deathbed, summarizes his life, he declares that God had been his “shepherd all of his life to this day” (Genesis 48:15).  

In Psalm 80 the Psalmist refers to God shepherding Israel and leading Joseph like a flock (Psalm 80:1). 

In Isaiah 40 God is pictured as a shepherd feeding his flock, and gathering the little lambs in his arms, carrying them in his bosom and gently leading the mother sheep (Isaiah 40:11).

As a Mother Comforts Her Child

It’s interesting to me that, interspersed with this imagery throughout Scripture of God as our shepherd, we also see God described with motherly language.

In Isaiah 66, God promises the Israelites, “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:13).

In Deuteronomy 32, God says to the Israelites, “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deut 32:18).  (Sounds like something some of our mothers might say!) 

In Hosea chapter 11, we see God take on the teaching, cuddling, and nourishing roles that are often associated with mothers. God says, 

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk taking them by the arms;

but they did not realize it was I who healed them.

I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.

To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them (Hosea 11:3-4).

Jesus also uses motherly language in Matthew 23:37 when looking over Jerusalem, saying, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.”

How Motherhood and Shepherding Help Us Understand God

How might these images of God as a shepherd and the use of motherly language expand our understanding of who God is?

1. First, they help us understand the tenderness and compassion that God has toward us. God is constantly looking out for us and providing for our needs. That doesn’t mean that we never experience difficulties and dangers in this life — we certainly do! But no matter what we go through in this life, God is there to pick us back up, and to brush away the dirt, and dry our tears, and to hold us and comfort us through the challenges that we face in this life.

2. These images help us understand that we are seen and known. And isn’t that something we all want? We want to be known, to not have to hide who we are, and to know that we are fully accepted and embraced simply because we are children of God, sheep of God’s own fold.

Just as mothers know their baby’s unique cries and can determine what they need, and just as a shepherd instinctively knows what the sheep need, so too God knows our needs even before we ask. Which is a good thing, because sometimes we don’t know what we need, let alone how to ask for it! We go through difficult times, and sometimes we feel pain, but other times we just feel numb. We don’t have the words to express how we’re feeling. We may not even be able to cry. But God knows what we’re going through, and God knows what we need. 

3. This imagery of motherhood and shepherding is important because so often we think that leadership is about dominance, that change will only take place through violence, and that strength means control.

But Jesus offers us a different vision. Like a shepherd, like a mother, he leads through tenderness, intimacy and self-giving love. Indeed, I would argue that there is no force more powerful and transformational in this world than a mother’s love (except that of God’s.)

In a world that prizes power, Jesus reminds us that true transformation happens through compassion, presence, and the willingness to lay down one’s life for others. Jesus willingly laid down his life for us, just as mothers so often put their children’s needs ahead of their own, and as shepherds risk their lives to save their sheep. 

Motherly Love

I realize that not all of us will connect with this imagery of motherhood. Not all of us have known or experienced the love of a biological mother, and not all of us have children. But whether or not you ever knew your mother, I pray that each of us has had someone in our lives who loved us like a mother, and who exemplified the tender and compassionate love of God toward us. And even if you’ve never been a mother, many of you have loved and cared for others with motherly love. (The truth of the matter is that no earthly image can fully express the tenderness and compassion that God has toward us. Rather, they give us just a glimpse of God’s perfect love toward us.)

Listening to the Voice of our Shepherd

In closing, one thing that strikes me about the studies I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon is that one of the studies mentioned that “babies in the womb actively listen to their mother’s voice…” Jesus, too, in John 10, says that his sheep “will listen to my voice” (John 10:16.) 

There’s a significant difference between “hearing” and “listening,” as any parent or teacher knows. Hearing is a passive, involuntary physiological process of perceiving sounds, while listening is an active, voluntary, and intentional process of understanding and making sense of sounds. Hearing is a basic sensory function, whereas listening requires cognitive engagement and attention. 

If babies in the womb can actively listen to their mother’s voice, then we, too, can learn to listen for the voice of our Shepherd. 

We can do this by: 

1. Looking up the Scripture passages that we hear read to us on Sunday mornings, and asking the Lord how we can apply them to own lives. 

2. We can listen to the voice of our shepherd by referring to the “Questions for Personal Reflection in response to Today’s Sermon” in the insert of our bulletin later in the week, and spending a few minutes each day reflecting on each question.

3. We can listen for the voice of our shepherd by taking some time each day — whether when we first wake up, or when we’ve driving in our car or riding the bus to work, or sitting at home — to turn off the TV and other noises and distractions, and spending a few minutes in solitude and silence.

Conclusion

And so today as we honor and remember the mothers and mother figures in our lives, may we consider how they point us to the tender and compassionate love of God. May we listen — truly listen — to the voice of our Good Shepherd, and may we also become vessels of his shepherding love in the world—offering comfort, compassion, and care to all who are in need. 

Amen!

Questions for Personal Reflection in Response to Today’s Sermon:

1. Who has offered you “motherly” love, even if they weren’t your biological mother? How did their care reflect the compassion of God?
2. How does the comparison of God to a mother and to a shepherd impact your understanding of God’s love?
3. Have you ever struggled to know what you needed, only to find that God provided anyway?
4. Are there people in your life right now who need to experience shepherding or motherly love through you? How might God be calling you to offer that care?
5. What steps can you take this week to become more attentive to the voice of the Shepherd? (e.g., Scripture reading, silence, reflection, journaling)