A woman fell on the stone stairway of the police station in Boston and was severely injured. She was taken to the hospital and examined by a doctor who said to the nurse: "She will not live more than a day." After the nurse had attended to her for a few hours, the woman told her story.

I have traveled from California, stopping at every city of importance between San Francisco and Boston, visiting two places always--the police station and the hospital. My boy went away from me and did not tell me where he was going, so I have sold all my property and made this journey to seek him out. Some day he may come into this hospital and if he does, tell him that there were two who never gave him up.

Evening came and the doctor told the nurse: "It is now but a question of minutes." The nurse bent over and said: "Tell me the names of the two and I will tell your son if I see him." With tears in her eyes she replied: "Tell him that the two were God and his mother." Moments later, she died.

Human analogies are limited in their usefulness to explain God. If we compare God to a father or a mother, those analogies may not work well for someone who had a bad father or mother. In other cases human analogies are highly useful. Imagine the great seeking love of that mother who traveled the length of the country to try to find her son. Think of the shepherd who goes out in search of the one lost sheep (Lk. 15:4-7). Think of the hen who gathers her brood under her wings (Mt. 23:37). Think of the father who watches daily for the return of a wayward son (Lk. 15:11-32). Think of the husband who takes his unfaithful wife back into his home (Hosea). Truly the seeking, searching love of God is beyond measure: "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:39).