Thoughts on Being a Woman

Last month my cousin bore her second baby.  A second man-child in which she labored hard to receive with joy, almost from the moment of conception she struggled in labor.  Those who are sick for nine months know.

Then a few days after his arrival her kid neighbors knocked on her door asking to borrow hairspray.  She said she didn't have any and they said of course not, you stay home all day without any need for sprucing up.

And I've been thinking lately about the strength of women, the intelligence of women, the amazing-ness of a woman.  

Look at her.  She is strong.  Anyone who can tackle the prairie, kids in tow, and still find beauty and softness is powerful.

Often we look at our physical and sometimes vocational vulnerability as a weakness.  Yet our womanly vulnerabilities are only a slight addition to the vulnerabilities all people face.

I sit here, on my leather couch, while miles underneath me the earth's fiery core crackles and pops, the plates shift and groan, the rivers and oceans roar and halt.  I am vulnerable.

Above me winds go wild, rains, snows, sleets give no heed.  The sun scorches, leaving drought in its wake.  Planets swirl.  Meteorites plunge.  Galaxies move and change perpetually and I don't even know how it all effects me, but it does.  The rays of the sun are essential but can be deadly.  The tilt of the earth gives seasons, the turn gives days, the path gives years.  The moon pulls waves.  

Next to me, on this planet, are people who drive under influences or text message while driving.  Diseases spread.  Water gets tainted.  Food can poison.  Cells can atrophy.  Seeds can be altered and soil gets ruined.  Evil belief systems threaten to destroy others.  Governments adopt ideologies contrary to the God of the Bible's value system...that each person is wonderfully made.  

Of course there is more but here is the point.  My female-ness is just another vulnerability I continually live with.  It is one more reason to hold onto the hope of a powerful God.  A God who has even made it possible through His sacrifice on the cross for us to connect to Him.  He beckons us to rely on Him, be lead by Him, trust Him, love Him.

Part of the God I worship's character is revealed in a woman.  As image bearers, created to display God, we as women display portions of God to the world.  

His nurture, as when Jesus cried over Jerusalem, longing to gather them as a hen gathers her chicks under His wings.  His weakness, as in Hebrews it says He endured hostility from sinful men, or Philippians where he submitted to taking the form of a man.  His compassion,  as Jesus stopped and called the woman who had been bleeding for years and sneaked a touch at His garment for healing.  He called her out and called her daughter.

And in receiving Him, I too am His daughter.  He enters into my heart and touches to heal the darkness and disaster I couldn't clean up.  

Me.  My sisters.  We are women.  We are vulnerable.  With Jesus, though, we are powerful.

I wish you a Happy Mother's Day, rejoicing in the gift of being a woman.