gendered beings...
I have a friend who adopted an embryo, actually 6 of them, to begin a family. At the time, I had never even heard of embryo adoption. It was fantastical to me. Honestly, it still is.
My mind is blown wide open as I think about the hugeness of a God who sees all of us, every one of us, every minute of life, even before we are formed. Right down to embryo’s frozen in test tubes waiting to be implanted.
As I hold and play with the soon to be two year old, I cannot help but stare and praise. Every time it hits me afresh. We are walking miracles. We serve a God who sees through time and generations. A God who sees the multitudes and sees the individual. Even if that individual is a frozen embryo awaiting adoption.
The Psalmist tells us that we are knit together by God inside the wombs of our mothers. That we are seen before we are formed. The God of the bible is not a far off deity watching life unfold. He is intimately involved in each of our lives, regardless of whether or not we recognize or credit Him.
Genesis tells us that God created them male and female. We looked at this verse by verse a couple weeks ago. This has been the foundational teaching of the church for centuries. But how can we reconcile that teaching with the world around us today with a huge variety in gender labels, presentation, and expression. On top of that, we also have to reckon with people wrestling with diagnosable gender dysphoria, or newborns whose sex is undetermined. How can we make sense of this?
Our point in today's post is to put forward the idea that we do not have all the answers, we will not get complete answers. But we can start with what we know and trust God, who He reveals Himself to be, along the way.
My husband and I struggled with what I will call garden variety infertility for several years before we had our son. Temperatures, hormones, shots, more hormones, mood swings, all became normal. I realized, in fact, that, miscarriages are common. Not often talked about, but common nonetheless.
I have to believe that miscarriages are a result of the Fall. If we all lived in Eden, all pregnancies would result in healthy babies- that seems to be God’s original design.
This may seem simplistic, but it’s genuinely how I see many of the struggles and much of the pain around me. I actually think that I’ve been given the gift of faith, so at times, it’s easier or simpler for me to believe.
We often underestimate how much of everything about everything about everything has been stained by sin. Not simply actions that are ‘wrong’, but the very fabric of life, and all of life around us is corrupted by sin.
So from the very moment of conception, we are being impacted by the stain of sin and its consequences.
We’ve started into a series of discussions around the topic of gender. I say ‘around’ because I think there are a myriad of discussions and thoughts that need to be explored in this topic. It’s not my intent to be vague or circular- only to draw out the many sides to the story.
I challenged you to examine yourself- what are some of your preconceived ideas or biases. What are the ideas or terms that set your teeth on edge? I wrote a while back about a friend of mine who was frustrated at someone asking to be identified with the pronoun “they”. That set her teeth on edge because she could not understand. We can run from those things, or we can begin to examine why we think and feel the way that we do.
I also challenged you to begin to do some of your own study and reading about gender. Reading these posts is a good start, but it will probably take more on your part.
So what can we know? I’ll share some of the things that I hold to be true and you can see what you think. I’d love to hear what you think- message me!
I’m also going to share some links for you to check out as part of your own study. As you listen or read from the links that I post, perhaps that will also help you uncover some biases, some things that set your teeth on edge.
Things I hold to be true (the short list :)
We have a creator that is intimately involved with all the details of us.
God intended to create two sexes- that’s His perfect design.
We are created ‘in His image’ as gendered beings.
In Eden, birth sex and gender coincided perfectly.
All of the above has been impacted, infected, and stained by the Fall.
Just because something is a product of the Fall (like my miscarriage), it does not negate the pain, confusion, and hard in real people’s lives.
I need to walk in tremendous humility with all these topics.
My job is to walk alongside someone, sharing truth as I have the opportunity or am asked.
My job is not to bully someone into believing what I believe.
Certainly this list is not exhaustive- but it’s a good beginning for me. It doesn’t answer all of my questions. In fact, t leaves some questions hanging in the air for me. But I keep walking. I keep asking the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to my heart. I trust God’s character.
Some links to check out to grow your tough mindedness!
This is a podcast hosted by my friend Laurie Krieg. She says, “if I could pay you to listen to this, I would”. It’s important.
A Gender Conversation Part 2 with Heather Skriba - Laurie Krieg
I won’t pay you to listen- but I will treat for a beverage of your choice to discuss it! Hit me up!