The Incredible Worth of a Woman

As we come to prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, let us be reminded of the incredible worth of a woman from God’s point of view.  In the Genesis 1-2 narrative, we discover three amazing qualities of a woman’s worth from God.  The first is that a woman is created in the image of God.  The second is a woman’s unique call to bear children.  And then finally, a woman’s call to be a helper or servant. 

In Genesis 1:27 we read that “God created man in His own image in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”  This image of God extends to both men and women, which presses on a simple point:  men and women are created equal and have equal worth in God’s eyes.   Both are image-bearers of God.  Just as God is Spirit, both men, and women have been created with an eternal spirit.  Just as God has the ability to create, man and woman can create.  Just as God has a mind, emotions, and a will to choose, so we also have those same qualities. 

But in Genesis, we cannot miss a basic truth, God created them also “male and female.”  Equal in essence, but different biologically and different in their call by God.  And that brings us to a second unique call for a woman by God and that is her ability is bear children. 

When God spoke in Genesis 1:28, He gave this mandate to both men and women, “be fruitful and fill the earth.”   The burden here calls a woman alone to bear children.   But in our culture these days there is a lot of confusion on just this question.  Some of that confusion comes from the feminist movement of the last 50 years and some of that confusion comes recently from the LGBTQ+ community. 

The feminist movement argues that a woman’s true worth is not tied to her God-given call to raise a family but to her career, accomplishments, and her ability to live independently of family, instead of within a family.  And yet when God gives a mandate in Genesis to “be fruitful and fill the earth.” (Gen 1:28)  This mandate from God gives women the special call from God to be a mom and bring others into the world that bear the image of God.    

A second confusion comes from the LGBTQ+ community.  That confusion has to do with the definition of what a woman actually is.   Most of us, who have listened to this debate are still trying to make sense of it.  Central to the LGBTQ+ argument is that one’s gender is not tied to biology or a call from God, but tied to the way a person feels.  Biology is disregarded, along with the call by God to bear children. 

Along with this argument is the strange discussion about how to use pronouns.  Instead of he and she, we are now supposed to eliminate gender-bound pronouns and choose they, it, and “per” for a person.    But greater than the argument of language or biology is the Genesis narrative that gives a woman the unique ability to bear children and foster a family, no matter how a person feels about themselves.   In essence, the LGBTQ+ argument has to do with truth and whether we tie our identity to God’s word, which is transcendent to ourselves, or we tie ourselves to our own feelings and perceptions. 

A final call by God to a woman is her call to be a helper.  After God created man, God said, “I will make him a helper fit for him.”  (Genesis 1:18)   One lexicon describes the Hebrew word helper as the “ability to provide what is lacking or needed.”   This is a call to be a servant and remember when we understand this in the context of all of Scripture, Jesus calls Himself a servant and tells us it is better to be “serve than to be served.” 

When God describes His Spirit which He would give every believer in Jesus upon faith, He describes the Spirit as a “Helper,” (John 14:26)   One who comes alongside.  This means that both the Son and the Spirit are in concert with a woman’s unique call to be a helper and a servant.  It is within our ability to sacrifice and give ourselves for another that we discover the beauty of who God is. 

The Genesis narrative describes a woman as an image bearer of God, a mother who brings other image bearers into the world, and a servant.  And while that places the woman in a place of vulnerability and weakness let us remember the promise of Scripture that tells us that it is in weakness that “the power of Christ is perfected.” (II Cor 12:9)