To Be a Woman Is a Glorious Thing

Recently, I came across this photo capturing four generations of women from the same family, and I can't stop looking at their faces. How I would love to have one just like it, picturing my own grandmother, mother, self, and daughter. Of course, this is impossible because my maternal grandmother passed away in 1965, but I do intend to have a three-generation picture taken when the opportunity arises.

Look at the body language of these delightful ladies, made even more noteworthy by the strict picture-taking customs of their time. The two youngest are allowing themselves a small smile, and even the older two look ike they're having to hold back a little to keep a proper level of decorum. I also love the way they are leaning inward, heads tilted toward one another in varying degrees depending (no doubt) upon the extent of each individual's determination to maintain the expected level of sobriety. I would venture to say that the hearts of these four were "knit together in love" (Col. 2:2).

Women inspire me. They always have, in fact. Where else can you find such a combination of strength and softness, humility and chutzpah, drive and devotion? As a poem I once wrote begins, "A woman is a perfect blend of truth and contradiction...". For this beautiful complexity and a host of other reasons, I think a woman is one pretty spectacular thing to be.

Unfortunately, I also think that society as it stands today is selling us short. We are far more than the self-proclaimed mavens of society and popular culture would have us be...and while equal pay for equal work and other such issues are reasonable conversations to have, our divinely-gifted power as women cannot be enhanced or diminished by any condition imposed upon us from without. Within us lie the seeds of eternity. We are builders of life, partnered with God in bringing His light, His love, and His children to the world. We, like Eve, are the "mothers of all living" (Genesis 3:20).

Don't misunderstand me. Our various earthly rights and worldly roles as women are well worth fighting for (I am, in my own way, a feminist), but we must always remember that our true power is not reliant upon winning (or losing) any temporal struggle, no matter how egregious, well-documented, or well-advertised the issue. We must not be distracted by the adversary, who holds up one shiny bead as a prize when we are already wearing the complete necklace, too often without realizing it. In other words, women cannot allow our knowledge of who we really are to be centered in the thick of thin things. No counterfeit image or narrowly-defined persona should be substituted for our true identity. No limited, earth-bound vision, created and maintained by man, should ever be allowed to make us lose sight of the magnificent daughters of God that we are.