Imagine being born as a little girl in India. Imagine being born as a disappointment.
Your daddy told his parents he was ready for a wife, and they promptly arranged his marriage to your mother.
Within a year, your body is taking form in your mama’s belly. You are preparing for your entrance into the world.
The day of your birth comes, but rather than celebrating new life, mom and dad are occupied with their yearning for the next baby. They are desperately hoping for a boy.
It’s not that they don’t love you, per se. It’s more that they don’t love the cost which comes with having a baby girl. This cost stretches further than Indian rupees, too. It’s the cost of social reputation, perception, and relationships.
Shame is tacked onto your mother as if she somehow failed by birthing a female, as if she made the choice herself. Centuries of tradition say she’s cursed or inadequate.
As a woman herself, she not only carries the weight of being a female in India, but now she must bear the burden of “failing” at her one given purpose: to birth and raise baby boys.
Shame spirals as she continues to birth your baby sisters. Your family is now vulnerable to more injustice in the form of female infanticide, neglect, trafficking, and the like.
The world tells you that you are wrong because of who you are – you are a taker, not a giver to society. You aren’t worthy of a proper education or even decent food because you’re seen as nothing more than added cost.
The world around you says you are worth nothing. It would have been better had you not been born.
This is your reality, and it breaks your Heavenly Father’s heart. The world feeds you lies and attempts to drown out the truth he’s singing over you.
He says you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
He says in him, you will lack nothing.
He says you were not a mistake, but rather, you were created for a very specific purpose.
He says you can lean on his strength.
He says he sees you.
He says he loves you.
He says you will be radiant, never ashamed as you look to him.
He says you were worth dying for on the cross.
When Jesus said “It is finished” he wasn’t talking about his own suffering as his body hung on a cross. He was talking about your shame, your separation from him, your mess. He took all of that and wiped you clean. He chose you because he wants you to live as his daughter.
Maybe your earthly parents are disappointed on the day of your birth. Maybe they wish you were something you are not. Maybe your parents are not to blame, but they’re actually doing the best they can with what they know.
Bottom line is this: Human love is fractured and stained with sin, but that’s not God. God’s love is pure and true and the only kind of love worth looking for.
He wants you to be free of the lies you were born into. He wants you to know that as a little girl born in India, he loves and values you beyond measure.
