May 26 Man, Woman and Mystery

Proverbs 30:18-19 There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.

Are we any different from the wise writer of these proverbs in our capacity to understand these things? I think about evolution and the laws behind it - that living creatures evolve in relationship to their needs to survive. Tell me how the eagle knew it needed to fly to survive and how long did it take it to develop the wherewithal to fly? Well, you get the idea.

Let's think about the way of a man with a maiden and the author's comments that each was created to supply what was missing in the other. I would like to consider this or take it one step further. Mankind was created in the image of God, but it seems to me that it requires the best of both genders to reflect the image of God as completely as is humanly possible.

Years ago, when I was in graduate school, I took a course on feminism. I wanted to understand what it really was all about, and in the end, what I learned was vey helpful. First, the literature seemed to say that for a woman to succeed in the world, she had to function as a male. Interesting! In their search for equality, women were driven to reject who they were and where God made them most comfortable and adopt male values and style of relating. Instead women not only  were to dress in male garb but reject the feminine as something weak. Child-bearing was deferred; homemaking was demeaned, until....they realized that the corporate world and life-style did not satisfy. And for many, it was too late.

Then in my research for my final project - showing that there are indeed intentional male and female biological and psychological differences, I found a scientist who made no pretensions of being a believer who affirmed all that we might say about those differences, except that God designed them intentionally.

All of that to say this, God is our Protector, and males were given the physical body and muscular development to be the protector. And God is our Refuge and Strength, our very present Helper. Woman was given the emotional makeup to comfort, to support; her very identift and job from God's mouth is to be a helper....like He is.

It is not possible to fully develop this topic in these few lines, but I am so thankful that I am designed by God and given this role, of representing Him, created in His image, and of filling the gap of what is missing - being a helper, like He is.