By Debbie Boyce
“The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20).
Women are life-givers. What do I mean by that? Not that we can create life – only God can create life. However, humans were designed to do some amazing and creative things. We are also designed to be in submission to God, to love Him, and to remember our place in his created order.
As Christians, we humbly marvel at our exalted place in God’s order – ones who have dominion over His creation – and simultaneously embrace our rightful place in relation to Him – we are His creation and dependent upon Him for our very lives. In Him we live and move and have our being.
I mean something different when I say women are life-givers.
First, we have the potential designed into our bodies to contribute an egg, which when united with a sperm becomes a new human being. Certainly men are life-givers in a similar way. This is a beautiful example of God’s design, since loving, covenantal “teamwork” between male and female is intended for the reproduction of life.
But in God’s design, women also participate in reproduction and life-nurturing in some different ways than men. One way is as birth mothers. We have a unique role in pregnancy and breastfeeding. In our wombs, our bodies provide shelter and nourish the growing child until she or he can live outside. The unborn child enjoys an extraordinary and unique bond with its mother. The child hears our voice and knows our heartbeat. Once born, the infant is wonderfully nourished at our breasts with the milk produced within our bodies. All of these are familiar biological facts, but I spell them out because many in our culture view them as inconvenient burdens limiting women rather than as blessings. The Bible sees them positively.
Whether as birth mothers or adoptive mothers, there is further the deep and intangible nourishment of being held close and gazed upon, spoken to and sung to, and smiled at during feedings. Beyond infancy, research shows that a mother nurtures her young children with an effectiveness not commonly matched by a father (see Stephen Rhoads, Taking Sex Differences Seriously). I hope to write more about this in a future post.
There are also many women who pour into the lives of children spiritually. Spiritual mothering, as Sunday school teachers, daycare and school teachers, aunts, big sisters, and other mentors, is another broader means of lifegiving. Again, I hope to write more about this, including stories of women who have devoted themselves to offering spiritual life to the children of others.
The man named his wife Eve, a Hebrew derivative of the verb “to live,” because she would be the mother of all the living. As women we have the privilege of experiencing in a way distinct from men “the joy that a person has been born into the world” (John 16:22). Adam recognized in the first woman a being both like himself (“bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”) and simultaneously different, and the Bible records that what he saw was a woman’s capacity for life giving.
God’s design for man and woman is very good – and includes both our shared humanness in His image and our differentiated humanness, or gender. I want to celebrate that goodness every day of my life and teach others to do the same. I have no desire to diminish the beauty of being male, and fathers are essential and irreplaceable. However, because I am a woman, I write especially to celebrate women in all of our human capacity, whether shared with men or distinct from them. May I glorify God and encourage you, my sisters.