Hmm, nature actually is a mother

I always thought talk about 'Mother Earth' was some new-age way of staying spiritual about the world, while ignoring the Creator of the world. But in Romans 8:22, the Apostle Paul writes that there is a profound sense in which Earth really is like a mother:

"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now."

John Piper comments:

What he says here is that the upheavals of creation are like labor pains during the last stages of pregnancy. In other words, something is about to be brought forth from creation, not in place of creation. Creation is not going to be annihilated and recreated with no continuity. The earth is going to bring forth like a mother in labor (through the upheavals of fire and earthquake and volcanoes and pestilence and famine) a new earth.

Jesus used the same imagery of labor pains when he said (in Matthew 24:7-8), "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."

This earth is like a mother about to give birth to a new earth where righteousness dwells and where God reigns in the midst of his people.

It would be nice if everyone who spoke of 'Mother Earth' had such hope.