And Also Some Women

March 31 marks twenty years since I flew Eliana and Isabella home from Haiti, and they officially became both U.S. citizens and part of our family. Prior to adopting them, we saw a therapist who specialized in race relations. One assignment she gave us was to attend an all-black church in St. Louis. Our kids were coming to a community where they would be the only people of color, and our therapist wanted us to have a better understanding of what that would feel like for them. It was eye-opening, and the first time I began to understand that representation matters. It’s really uncomfortable to be the only person in a room who looks like you. That feeling is magnified when “people like you” are routinely portrayed in a negative light, whether it’s by the media or others who inhabit the same spaces you do. You can begin to feel a diminished sense of value based on a physical attribute beyond your control. 

As a woman, I sometimes feel this way when I read the Bible. There are a lot of men featured in Scripture, which makes sense given the culture and time in which it was written, but even still, when I’m reading a book that tells me who God is and what He’s like, and throughout the Old Testament, read few stories of him interacting with women, I sometimes wonder how he feels about ME. These feelings can be exacerbated when I read New Testament epistles and note the frequent use of the pronoun “he” (used for simplicity by translators) even when the original text actually means “he and she”, or in colloquial terms, “all y’all”.  I’m grateful for the gospels where the authors record for us Jesus’ interactions with women and we can see more clearly God’s heart for all people. 

In Luke 8 we read of a group of women who traveled with Jesus and the 12 disciples as he proclaimed the kingdom of God. Three of these women are named, which implies they would have been well known among the early church- Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna- as well as “many others” who were less familiar but nonetheless traveled with Jesus and contributed to his ministry out of their private means. Jesus’ treatment of women was no small thing, and completely counter cultural. Women in that day could not study under rabbis, but they could learn at the feet of the Master, even traveling with and ministering alongside him. While ancient culture gave women no rights, no security, no privilege, Yahweh had stamped them with his image. Jesus affirms the Father’s heart for women throughout the gospels as he continuously draws near to women, whether they are the outcasts of society, women of means, or anywhere in between. Today, the Spirit gives gifts to all those who call upon the name of the Lord, without respect to gender.  

Culture is constantly pitting women against men, as though we are inherently different. The truth of Genesis is that both men and women reflect the image of God: Not man alone, not woman alone. Men and women collectively reflect the imago Dei. Our sons and daughters need to see “people like them” following Jesus wholeheartedly, learning at the feet of the Master. Men and women need to see themselves AND each other as a vital part of God’s continuing work in the world. Both women and men should walk in the gifts the Spirit has given them, so that Jesus will be glorified and the church will be built up. 

Just a few verses further in Luke we read the Parable of the Sower. The One who sows scatters the seed far and wide. The seed is sown among the Jews and the Gentiles, among men and women, wealthy and enslaved. It’s dispersed to every tribe, every nation and tongue, so that some might hear and call upon the name of the Lord. The Gospel is for everyone. Friend, Jesus has secured your citizenship in heaven and made a place for you in his family. Wherever you are today, I pray you see yourself in God’s story, and that when the seed lands on your heart it takes root in good soil.

Natalie