The value of a woman 2: the war against girls

Since the 1970s, 163 million girls have gone missing! They haven't been kidnapped, but killed--by their own parents, before they had a chance to be born! Couples want to have boys, so they simply abort the girls. It's happening all over the world, but especially in India and China. Now the ratio between boys and girls is out of whack, and there aren't enough women for the men to marry.

Some cultures see girls as a liability. One ad in India reads, "Better 500 rupees now than 5,000 later." In other words, it's cheaper to abort a girl than to pay for her wedding! As the mother of two married daughters, I can say this may be true in terms of dollar amounts, but in no way is what they are advertising here "better"! Not only is every daughter a precious gift from God (Psalm 127:3-5), skillfully and wonderfully woven together in her mother's womb (Psalm 139:13-16), made in the image of God himself, and thus worth more than an infinite number of rupees. But also girls are necessary to the human race.

We see this when God creates Eve. When God had made the heavens and the earth, the sky and the seas, the sun, moon, and stars, the plants and sea creatures, and a man in his own image--and all "good" (Genesis 1)--he looked at his handiwork and said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:18). Then, the Bible tells us, he formed the wild animals and cattle and birds and brought them to the man. But among all these creatures "there was not found a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:19).

I can imagine God laughing a little bit at this point, as Adam scratches his head. These animals can help Adam pull a plow or a cart, they could even be companions, as all pet owners know; but they were not "fit for him." Adam needed someone like himself, made like him in the image of God and yet of the opposite sex. And so God put the man under anesthesia, took one of his ribs, and built a woman.

Eve was the last of God's creation works, and as Susan Foh writes, she was not a luxury but a necessity! She alone, out of everything God made in those six days, shared Adam's nature as image of God. She had intelligence, language skills, the ability to judge and discern, dexterity, the capacity to know God, etc. to be truly "fit for" Adam. And she was exactly what Adam needed if there were ever going to be more people on earth. That is how God made man as male and female; there is no other way to procreate the human race.

This is what countries like India and China are discovering. May God cause all nations to rediscover how "very good" it is to have girls!