Heavenly Mother

Digital, 2023

Women are much more powerful than we give them credit for, much more influential in history and in individual relationships. “The power behind the throne” is a common refrain, and there was rarely a more powerful leader than the Chinese dowager Empress. I think that extends into Heaven, too, where there is a Heavenly Mother and she has much more power and influence and a much greater hand in all that is happening on Earth and in our lives than we understand.

Heavenly Father and Mother have an idealized and perfected co-equal loving partnership where one is not one whit behind the other. Seeing some of the corrupted takes in our world today about their relationships can be quite disturbing. Still, these takes are expected, because the family is the most important unit in eternity and the fundamental unit of society, and therefore the one most likely to be attacked. The same for the roles of mortal women and motherhood and men and fatherhood.

The day will come when we will understand in full the nature of that relationship. In the meantime, I take comfort from these words:

“Each [person] is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny … we have a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother who are even more concerned, probably, than our earthly father and mother, and that influences from beyond are constantly working to try to help us when we do all we can.” (Gospel Topics Essays, “Heavenly Mother“)