A Woman's Purpose

"I could not even fulfill the one reason God created women."

This heartbroken woman spoke of her inability to bear a child.  Another woman lamented her single status because she had no husband to whom she could be a "helpmeet." After all, that's why God created women. 

While I have no wish to diminish the pain of one who can't bear a child or who has remained single despite a fervent desire to marry, truth compels me to expose their faulty thinking.  God did not create women to be wives nor to bear children.  God created women for the same purpose he created men.

Genesis 1:27 says, And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.  The preposition in translates into as  thirty-five percent of the time.  It puts a slightly different slant on this verse.  Read it again, this time substituting as:  And God created man as His own image, as the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.

Man (as in mankind, both males and females) was created to be God's image bearer on earth.  Notice it is what we were created TO BE.

Let's look at Genesis 2:18. Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man (Adam, male species) to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for him."

The problem with humans is we tend to look at everything in light of what we are TO DO rather than who we are TO BE.  If you read this verse with TO DO glasses on, you see women as servants, there to help Adam complete his tasks.  But if you switch out the TO DO glasses and put on the TO BE glasses, it reads something like this: Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to bear the entire responsibility of being My image alone; I will make another who is suitable to help him meet this image bearing responsibility by bringing her uniqueness to the earth."

Now that's an entirely different perspective on what it means for women to be the "helpmeet" of men.  And it has nothing to do with being married, nothing to do with bearing children, nothing to do with anything TO DO.  It's all about who we were created TO BE.

How does that change the heartbroken cry of the barren or single woman?

Until next time,
Becca