The following article can be read in its entirety at Ligonier Ministries.
One of my favorite books as a child was the classic by P.D. Eastman, Are You My Mother? It’s the story of a baby bird who falls from his nest and goes in search of his mama. I would anxiously turn the pages as he asked a hound dog, an old car, and a host of other creatures and objects his soulful question: “Are you my mother?” As the little bird goes along searching, he passes right near his mother without being aware. The text reads: “He did not know what his mother looked like. He went right by her. He did not see her.” Having met with disappointment and even danger again and again, at last he would find her on the very last page, just as my four-year-old heart was about to break from the suspense. Eastman wrote a book that appealed to an obvious truth: babies need mothers.