What does it mean to be a woman? This question has plagued me for a long time now.
I come from a family where the traditional roll of a woman just wasn’t what was in store. My grandmothers raised their children, both their husbands having passed away. My mom put herself through nursing school during a time when other women were burning their bras.
The women I have had the divine blessing to be raised by, taught by, and to look up to, have never fit the “norm.” But the women who’s stories I have memorized and which God has used to teach me about his character, serve as a reminder that, I was made for such a time as this.
In these times women are threatened with diseases and trials, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, infertility, and image issues, we are struggling with the reality that we are not the sum of our parts. What makes me a woman isn’t found in my ability to rock a great bra or to birth a baby. It’s also not found in the state of my nails, my make-up, my hair, my clothes or my favorite color (green, not pink).
My identity as a woman is found in the same thing that ALL women’s identity is found in. God. It’s simple and complex at the same time. God chose to make me a woman; an odd, weird, woman, but he created me one, for this time. He has a game plan, he likes that my favorite color is green, he made green. He delights in me, not because I like sparkly nail polish, but because he sees how I wonder at it and that it makes me smile.
God’s love for me, his definition of me, isn’t contingent upon anything else than the fact that I am his daughter. Earning his love is impossible. I can’t earn a gift. So even on days when I wear my glasses and baseball cap he loves me as much as on days when I’m dressed up.
So let’s save the ta-tas, yes, but please! Please! Can we please save the women who think that that is what defines them? Can we run marathons to save the women who will show God unlike any other woman in history ever has and ever will? We are not the sum of our parts. We are not defined by them. We are beautiful, desirable and lovely, because the one who made us in His image is that way. Save the image bearers!
