'And 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 rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds if the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth"'
Genesis 1:27
Woman and not just man was created in the image of God. God chose to leave imprints of himself on the earth. My children love it when it snows. The crisp white ground beckoning temptingly to them as they desire nothing more to be the first person out on the unspoilt ground. Hats on, gloves on, numerous layers of clothing on and then finally the boots. Out they run and the ground is no longer flat but has pattern after pattern of little children's boot prints streaming across the ground. For a time the ground bears the impression of where the children have walked. God left His impression upon the earth and unlike the snow which melts and fades away His impression remains here today with the earth filled with men and women created in His image. God intended that we would view a mirror reflection of God's character. In so doing this God has said to us to imitate Him. God has ultimate dominion over the earth and we are to have dominion over the areas of our lives that are before us.
'Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going'
Ecclesiastes 9:10
God tells us to get out there and do it with all our might.
A second arm to the creation mandate is that of bearing children. We are commanded to be fruitful and to bear children is our obligation. Just as plants have different manifestations of fruitfulness like large clusters of grapes or two ears produced by a cornstalk we too have different kinds of fruitfulness. Fruitfulness will vary from family to family and womb to womb. Mark Chanski asks the question 'What is the mightiest strategy for influencing the world unto God glorifying good?'. He believes bearing and nurturing God-fearing offspring is the answer...the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world! What do you think? Does the role of women seem inconsequential now?
But, some women say, staying at home and letting my husband be the breadwinner makes me unequal to him. Wrong says God for he made us, man and woman, to both be fellow heirs. In Christ we are all one. Go check out 1 Peter 3:5-6 if you don't believe me. Whilst we have been made equal we have also been made diverse. We should celebrate this diversity and not seek to cover it up and make males more female or females more male. We should put a stop to the neutralising of our gender and celebrate women as being women created unique by our heavenly Father and celebrate men for being men again created unique by our heavenly Father. Man is designed to be the head and leader and the woman is designed to be follower and helper. Back to our football imagery we have been given our positions, we need to play our positions and we need to do so with a win it mentality.
God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit each have their own rules although equal in the God head and we should look to this as an example to us. Stop listening to the lies of the world about how women can have it all, be the breadwinner, be the man. God has gifted women in beautiful ways to be the helpmeets, to be the child-nurturers and He wants us to play our positions.
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