Inimba - God's grace

In our part of Africa we have a wide variety of people, languages, cultures and customs. It is easy for one group to feel that it can learn nothing from the others. The truth is that we have heaps to learn from each other. Each culture is rich in traditions which could be of great blessing to others. Let me share with you something I learnt recently.

Any mother knows that when her infant cries the sound of that cry does something to her. She immediately responds – without having to think about it. Her response is not only an inner feeling of love and concern for her baby; she finds that he body also responds to the cry. Without hesitation, and almost without being able to resist it, she responds to her child’s need.

Now the truth I learnt is that the Xhosa people regard this response as a ‘thing’ that lives inside a mother. To them is it so real that they have given it a name. It is called Inimba. Inimba is like an extra part of the body that lives in a mother, or it is a special spirit that works within a mother.

Pause awhile and think about this thing that is so strange to some of us, while it is so well-known to others.

Babies can be very wearying when they are ill. A stranger might become irritated by their constant crying. A stranger might reckon that a baby that keeps crying when there is apparently nothing wrong, does not deserve to be loved or helped. But the mother loves her baby and goes to rescue instinctively.

To Inimba there is no question about deserving. Inimba simply moves a mother to help. Inimba does not ask whether the baby needs to be helped. Inimba does not say, I have helped you enough times already today and now I will help you no more. Maybe I will help you again tomorrow.

This is a profound truth not only about a mother but also about our heavenly Father – God.

Possibly Inimba is one of the activities of God the Holy Spirit. I don’t wish to be blasphemous so I must not make any detailed suggestions about God’s nature. But this I know: as a mother responds to the cry of her baby, so God responds to the need of His people.

One might go so far as to say that this response in love, care and rescue is part of the very make-up of God – part of His nature – so that it is not possible for Him to ignore our cry.

There will be times when, like a naughty child, we have played with fire and have been burnt. We ourselves might admit that we do not deserve to be helped because we got what we asked for; it was our own fault. At such times we hesitate to go to God feeling that it is not fair to expect Him to forgive or to help.

We often feel this way about other people when they have been deliberately foolish or wicked. They don’t deserve God’s help.

But God has Inimba.

Foolish or wicked, deserving or undeserving, believing or doubting, we are loved and helped by God. He instinctively responds to our need – not only to our prayers. We are His children and He loves us.

The Bible says: Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you. ISAIAH 49:15

My Xhosa friend, thank you for giving me this understanding of the nature of God. You must find it very easy to believe in a God of love and mercy.

There is a further truth that we need to learn.

A woman will show the utmost tenderness and patience towards her child, but sometimes in dealing with other people (especially those she does not know) she will show ruthlessness and carelessness that are quite shocking. The same is true of a man., He will protect his child against all attacks and evil, Yet he will go out and inflict these same hurts on other people if he does not like them.

Is it possible that we could get an implant that would put Inimba in our hearts? If we could, this would be a lovelier world.

I can’t tell you for sure is there is a part in a mother’s body which can be separated and called Inimba. But whether there is or not, this is something that begins in the heart of God, something that God is prepared to give to all of us if we will accept it.

A baby’s life depends on the Inimba in its mother. The life of this strife-torn part of the world depends on the Inimba in ordinary people like you and me.

(an article by the late Rev Vivian Harris published in Living and Loving in February 1994)