It has been an insightful few weeks for me, during which I’ve contemplated the lovely role other women have in my life. Usually, my husband Neil and I have activities with couples, such as dinners out, games of cards for four, etc. But he has been volunteering his skills to get the church manse renovated for our new pastor and his family, and so recently I have had more time on my own.
On one of those free days I hosted a couple of lady friends for lunch. It was so very delightful that I have decided I am going to have to schedule those meet-ups more often because I had forgotten just how wonderful it is to sit, chat and exchange ideas with my female friends.
Fortunately, through work and volunteering I have come to know some quite brilliant women, most of whom are much smarter than me. In the Scriptures we learn “iron sharpens iron,” and I reasoned if these brainy women will let me learn from them, some of their wisdom will surely rub off on me. It is stimulating to have discussions in which I learn new things or hear different views.
After that fun day I was out shopping and ran into a woman I knew during my working days. She was absolutely glowing with newfound joy. She abruptly ended her high-pressure career mid-life and afterward met a man she wasn’t even seeking, and now, as the storybooks say, she is married and living happily ever after.
This was a magnificent turn of events for this lovely lady, who told me in so many words that she had believed “the story” and now knows better. Even though she is younger than I am by at least 15 years I knew immediately what “the story” was. The story that all young girls hear early on is that women are not meant to stay home and have babies, we are meant to get out there and win trophies like the men have always done, that we desire those accolades just as much and we deserve them. Many of us believed this story, and so we shunned marriage and children to go after the golden ring.
Having found that the golden ring was really tarnished brass, my friend was delighted to have found the real golden ring, which, for her, is a companion for life. Too late to have her own children, she will enjoy those around her in her now extended family. What a joy-filled woman I encountered.
Our Scriptures tell a lot about women’s abilities and expectations, our needs and desires and how they look from God, our Creator’s, view. I know, when I finally received a clearer understand of God’s words in the Bible, I was truly blessed by how He defines women. But having bought into at least a bit of “the story” myself, I can sympathize with women who have not yet come to know Jesus’ saving grace and who still shun God’s truer story.
We were created by God, “So the Lord God caused him [Adam] to fall into a deep sleep. While the man was sleeping, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God formed a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man. He brought her to the man.” … “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
God created women to be uniquely different from men, and I am particularly happy that we are. Of course, the very fact that we were created by a perfect and loving Father means that we have been given specific physical, and I believe soul-filled, attributes based on the fact that in creating the first female He was making a helpmate for Adam, “for Adam no suitable helper was found.”
Knowing world history and the Bible I am very familiar with the role Jesus played in giving women respect and appreciation during His ministry on earth. He upheld women to a position they did not know at the time. Even the Samaritan woman at the well was startled that a man, let alone a Jewish man, would speak to her with the kind and thoughtful words Jesus did.
There are many stories in the Bible of women who were strong and courageous. I am wonderfully thankful that God has graciously sought out both women and men who love and respect Him to give them the ability and joy of helping to further His Kingdom here on earth.
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”
Editor’s note: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.
