Childless Mother

He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children.

Praise the LORD.

- Psalm 113:9 NIV

Life can be lonely when one lives alone. At the same time, one can also feel lonely in a

house filled with people. Nowadays many people, though physically connected, are emotionally and socially disconnected. However, the person living alone experiences more moments of isolation. Research shows that people who live alone have shorter lifespans. People who live with others may have their isolation mitigated by voices demanding their attention.

The barren in the Old Testament are not simply people without offspring. Women then had no financial support apart from their husbands. In the days when widowhood was common, having no children meant there was no future security. Like Hannah, barren women faced the scorn of others (1 Samuel 1:6). Hannah’s thanksgiving song (1 Samuel 2:1-10) is sung at the Passover feasts, for God rescued Zion (Isaiah 54). At Easter, Psalm 113 is sung because Jesus fulfilled the Passover. In his incarnation, Jesus humbled himself and redeemed us through His blood.

We were also poor and barren without God but now can join the psalmist in this psalm of praise.

The psalmist tells us that God settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. This puzzled me for a long time until one day when I was at a silent retreat in Chiang Mai. It was a dark night. The stars were out in full glory.

Photos by Phyllis Wong

Suddenly, a thought came - Didn’t God promise Abraham offspring as many as the stars? In a blink of my eyes, I realised I am included in the count. And it came to me that I too have children. They are given to me by God, me, a childless woman. The ones who do the will of God and believe in Jesus - they are my father, mother, brother, sister. Those who are younger than me or who look to me for support and guidance are my children. I am a mother, a spiritual mother.

How can a childless person be a mother or a father? They can be when God settles them in His household. For God wants us to be a family – the family He loves. Joyful is the childless person in whose home God settles.

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“Childless Mother” first appeared in ‘I lift my eyes to you’, Devotions by Ladies of

Women's Society of Christian Service (WSCS), published by TRAC WSCS in 2019.