rooted

In Sunday School, I was taught that El means God and Shaddai means Almighty. But the title means more than "All-powerful One." The first time God promises to make Abraham fruitful he identifies himself as El Shaddai. Job, a contemporary of Abram, says it is the breath of El Shaddai that gives him life. Isaac blesses Jacob with El Shaddai's blessing to make him fruitful. When Israel blesses Joseph he chooses a blessing of El Shaddai.

Interestingly, in a Hebrew lexicon, Shaddai comes from the root shad which means "female breast, or of woman, or of mother." One of the core names of God is rooted in a womanly activity. God is revealing that he can be accurately called one who nurses, who makes fruitful, who sustains. God is like a mother, like a woman. As El Shaddai sustains all aspects of life, he does it with all-mighty energy: cultivating the blessings, cultivating the curses, cultivating fertility and cultivating people. God is like mothers, but mothers are also like God. Mothers cultivate life like El Shaddai.

From Ruby Slippers: How the Soul of a Woman Brings Her Home

by Jonalyn Grace Fincher

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