What is the value of a woman? Not much, in some cultures, according to several disturbing news articles. Gruesome female genital mutilation continues and isn't strongly condemned. It's just a cultural choice. Female feticide is rampant in India, because parents want boys not girls. A woman who dared to drive her own car in Saudia Arabia is jailed. What these stories have in common is the devaluation of women. Women just don't count as real persons in their own right.
This is not the Bible's view of women. The first thing we learn about Eve is that she was created in the image of God, and she was given dominion over the earth alongside the man.
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion...." (Genesis 1:27-28 ESV).
What does it mean to be a woman made in the image of God? An image is "a representation or imitation of the form of a person or thing, especially an imitation in solid form; a tangible or visible respresentation of something; a likeness" (Webster's). You can see your image in a mirror, capture your image in digital video, or order a bobblehead image on the web. Each of these would be like you and not like you. So it is with us as images of God. We are both like and not like God.
"God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth" (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q/A 4). We are not infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in anything! We grow and we age. We are not all-knowing or all-powerful, self-sufficient or self-existent. We are limited and created, and there are many things we cannot do. But we are "like" God. He created us with abilities "like" his. We don't have all of God's abilities, and we don't have any ability in the same way he does. But we are fearfully and wonderfully made to show off our Creator.
That means we have beauty, dignity, and honor; we have intelligence, creativity, the ability to reason and analyze; strength, dexterity, will; a conscience, moral sense, and the ability to love good and hate evil; the ability to make decisions and judgments; the capacity for personal relationships, the ability to communicate, and emotions. This is not a complete list of how we image God. In fact, I keep adding to the list as I study more. But these are enough to see the great value of women. Like the woman of Proverbs 31, each of us is worth more than the costliest gems!
May every woman be valued as an image of God!
My first thought, on reading this, is to wonder why you didn't include a link to the site where you can order a Bobblehead doll.
ReplyDeleteAll silliness aside, while I can see the allusion to Christ and His church from the woman's perspective, I'm not entirely easy with the man's place in that analogy.