God Loves Women

This past Sunday was Mother's Day and like a good Christian I went to church and celebrated my mother, my grandmother, all mothers.  This is the second year that I've heard our Pastor preach on Mother's Day and he is so good at it.  He recognizes all women. What I like most about Patrick is that almost every sermon recognizes the role of women not only in the world, but in the history of the church. I think too often we forget that when we personify the church, we address it as HER. 

I'm just going to rehash what Patrick talked about this past Sunday. Not too many young people attend my church anymore, so I think this is my way of passing along what I find important in Christianity these days.

Why women are SO important to Christianity:

1. If you take a look at the gospels, a woman is the first person to know that God will become human. Not only will the Divine walk among Humans, but He will become human.  And Mary, a woman, is the one who gets to bear him, bring Him into the world.  If you ask me, Mary is the FIRST Christian.  Women seem to be the ones in the Bible who are open to something new.  Joseph, Mary's husband couldn't believe it, he sought divorce from Mary until an Angel approached him.  Funny how even back in the day, men weren't listening to women.  Mary believed it right away, she didn't have to be convinced. 

And what about the resurrection, the Angels in the tomb addressed women, one of who was Mary Magdalene.  Remember, Mary Magdalene anointed Jesus.  Some historians argue that MM was from a royal or high standing family in Israel and that she was a main financier of Jesus' tour of the Holy Land.  It is important to remember, that things were not much different from our times. One cannot simply travel throughout the country without some kind of financing. Even when we retire and take that RV trip to the sunny States, we have to have money. Jesus, like us, needed money to teach the message.  But I digress. MM and the other women who went to prepare Jesus' body in the tomb did not find him. Instead they encountered two strangers who said He had been resurrected.  Being the faithful disciples they were, they quickly went to tell the men... WHO did not believe them. They HAD to see for themselves.  Ah men...

So women are open to something new.  And the first convert in Europe was Lydia from Macedonia.  She invited the disciples into her home to prove that she believed.  Ah women, moving the church forward simply because we are more open to change!

I believe this to be true, even when I consider my role in Christianity. When I was 24 until about 27, I was very much a non-believer. Before that I had been going to church, trying to find a reason to believe. I never tried to convince people to not believe, but I certainly was a doubting Thomas. But I was willing to keep my mind open. I guess in a way, I remained faithful that God would reach me. I took that time to explore other religions and beliefs.  One evening, while watching a simple documentary about physics, I found God again. Ever since then, I've been a believer. I am still not about pushing my beliefs onto people, but I have found life to be so much more significant seeing that there is a purpose, there is reason for life on earth.

2.  Women are able to see into people. We can see the inherit worth of people, we can see into the pain. Just last night, I could feel the pain of a friend through a simple e-mail.  I told my friend that I had faith that things would be okay and passed along my favorite scripture, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."  Mark 11: 24  Life can be good again, and accepting the pain within provides the path to healing. Some situations in life can be devastating, but there is the Spirit in all of us which allows us to heal.  Everybody probably knows the "Footprints in the Sand" poem, and it's true, God is always with us, and He carries us when we are in pain. When we cannot find the strength within each of us, he guides us to the resources we need. I know this more than anything.

3.  And women are good with messes.  Not as in we enjoy messes, but we are not nearly as afraid to engage in the messes of the world. Think about the first women who served as nurses in the battlefields during World War One.  These women left their homes to save the lives or comfort those in the passing from this life into the next.  Patrick mentioned the old adage that if women ran the world, there wouldn't be war.  He doesn't know how accurate it is, but I believe it.  Instead of developing weapons, we would probably just spread vicious rumors about each other to get back at each other.  It's interesting to see what women do to protect their pride, we tend to slip off the radar for awhile. We create a little drama, then rebuild ourselves. We accept what we may have done and try to make things better. So yeah, I think a woman would forgo killing... for the most part. 

Although being a woman is sometimes difficult. We have more issues with insecurity and self-esteem, but in the long run, we are amazing. We are often more in tune with our feelings, we want to fix things (not just fix men), we are accepting of change. When we feel at peace with ourselves, the world takes notice and we are able to be of better service to our world. 

Peace friends...