What IS a Woman?

 

What IS a woman? 

 

I have not written a blog in a long time. That doesn’t mean I have had nothing to share, but more and more this question seems to keep coming up and it’s answer is simple and profound. Yet, no one wants to answer it. Or they truly don’t know how to answer it.

 

We have all these people who go around now wanting to “identify” as something that they cannot even define.

 

I have done by own research in hopes of being able to articulate this to other people. I am a Christian. So yes, my answer is going to come with a Christian worldview. However, even if you are not a Christian you cannot outrun creation. You cannot outrun the way God made “men and woman.” Separate. Different. But equal.

 

Some may simply say that outwardly you can visually tell who is a woman and who is a man. But I would argue it’s deeper than that. Are men and woman simply our outward appearances? That seems a little insulting, don’t you think?

 

So, what IS a woman? 

 The scientific def. is "Adult human female." 

 But lets dive deeper, because some will argue "what is a female?"

 I share all this not to start anything, but share what is on my heart. It hurts to watch people not be able to answer a very basic question. As a mom of boys, I want my boys to be able to answer this question when asked. 

We don’t have to look very far for the answer. It’s found in Gen. 2:19-23

 

^“Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

 “This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”

 

The word “woman” in the original Hebrew in Gen. 2  is “Issa” or translated Opposite of man.

 

I was listening to a podcast just the other day and Steve Duece made this great point when it comes to Rhetoric. “If you want to know the meaning of a word look at its root.”

 

The root word for “woman” is man. In scripture “man” does not always mean the male. It means “human.”  When God made woman, He (God) let Adam name her. He called her “woman”. Out of man and/or opposite of man.  

 

Now there are some who may say, “well I don’t want to be named by the man.” Well, too bad. You & I are not the Creator. Therefore, we don’t get to set the rules. God created Eve (woman) but Adam got to name her. Just like he did “every living thing.” Eve was a living being. So, Adam got to name her to.

 

The word “woman” is found first in the creation story.

 

Secondly, we see in these verses the reason that God created a woman was to be helper to the man. That does not mean less. We think opposite/different means less. That is not true. They are just different in purpose, but equal. You cannot have one without the others.

 

Light/Dark: We need both

Up/Down: We need both

In/Out: We need both

 

You cannot always be down; you must come up. You cannot always be out, you must come in. Woman and Men are opposite/different. We are meant to complement each other. Not complete in the way the world thinks. Where you are not a whole person without someone else. It’s a completeness in that we need each other for the world to function. We need men to rise up and flourish in the way God designed them to be. We need woman to rise up and flourish in who they are called to be.

 

Marriage is a beautiful example to the world of seeing this fleshed out (When done the way God intended). But also, in a broader since, men and woman complete each other within a society—in that we completement each other.

 

Down to our very DNA we are male or female.

 

Doesn’t matter what you want to “identify” as. If you were found dead and unrecognizable and they test your DNA you know what’s going to come back… Male or Female (man or woman) NOT what you identify as.

 

When I was pregnant with my first and even my second at just 10-weeks pregnant they can test a mother’s blood and separate out the mother’s blood and the babies blood and based on their chromosomes tell you the gender/sex of the baby. It’s either XX or XY (boy/girl).

 

Even down to the way we see the world. The way our minds work is different. Men are more wired to compartmentalize things. Doesn’t meant they can’t be relational or emotional. Doesn’t mean that woman cannot also compartmentalize. It means men are hard-wired to compete, provide, compartmentalize. They have more muscle mass than woman. They are just by nature stronger. Woman, we are hardwired to be more relational. I like to say everything touches everything in our brains. That’s why woman can multitask. We can think/and do more than one thing at a time.

 

Being a woman has NOTHING to do with what shows you like to watch, whether you like to go shopping or not, whether you own 20-pairs of shoes or 2. It has nothing to do with whether you like to wear make-up and do your hair. Being a woman does not mean you even have to get married and have kids. Now there are certain things (like child birth and breast feeding that are exclusive to woman) but even that doesn’t apply to all woman. Because not every woman has carried or given birth. Some never will. Some don’t breast feed. Some have had to had breasts removed because of cancers or ovaries removed for various reasons. But even the things that are unique to woman are not what a woman is.

 

Being a woman (even according to 1 Peter 3:3-4) has nothing to do with outward appearance. It’s the inner person/character that matters.

 

Not only does Scripture tell us what a man/woman is, so does science. Anyone who took Biology 101 in High School knows at conception the gender of a baby is determined. A female baby has all the eggs she’s ever going to have in her life before she is 20-weeks gestation. Down to even the way our brains our wired in the womb are different.

 

At the root, a woman IS God’s creation. The Opposite of Man. The helper. We are the Ones taken OUT of man and fashioned by God to be a partner. The Helpmate. At the root of women (no matter how it fleshes itself out) we want to help. We want to serve. We want to make the world beautiful. We want to make the world better. We nurture. We are helpers. It’s WHY we were created. HOW we help may look different.

 

So, NO MAN no matter what he says can BE a WOMAN at his core—his DNA. His veins to do run with XX in them. Just like a woman, not matter how she may “feel” CANNOT be a MAN to her core.

 

You can wear whatever you want, dress however you like, call yourself whatever you want---but TRUTH is objective. It cannot change. An apple cannot be an orange just because it wants to be. You can paint an apple orange, and tell everyone it’s an orange. But the minute you bight into that “orange” guess what? Orange juice is not what is going to come out when you squeeze it.  It’s going to taste like an apple.

 

Truth does not care about feelings. Truth is objective, it’s not subjective. Therefore, you and I cannot have different truths.

 

Our culture is hungry for truth. I find it interesting that lately the world is having to confront it’s own lies.

 

Like Judge Jackson not being able to come up with an answer for a very basic question “what is woman?” When one of the reasons why she was chosen was for one of two reasons and one of those was because she is a woman?

 

I’m not picking on her, I sharing that to say people when confronted with the question cannot answer it and/or wont because it’s not popular to say the TRUTH.

 

I saw an interview with Matt Walsh on Dr. Phil where he asked two transgenders  what is a woman? They also could not define it. YET, we are turning our world/society upside down over something we cannot even define?

You CANNOT define a woman or man without God.

 

Just like you cannot talk about any piece of art without talking about the artist.

 

God created us, male and female in the very image of God. We are created to be image bearers. That does not mean physically. Down to our very nature, the fabric who we are (DNA) God made men and woman disguisable different for a reason. When you take a man and woman, and they become ONE you have this complete picture (image) of the character of God.

 

He is both protector and nurturer. He both leader and helper. He gives life. Sustains life. He provides. He is all things. Men and woman in our special unique ways are made to reflect him.

 

Again, you cannot outrun creation. You and I can try. But God knew us before we were in our mothers’ wombs (Ps 139; Jer. 1).

 

We also were born into a lost and hurting world. So we cannot be surprised when a lost/hurting/dying world acts accordingly. But we are not helping anyone by lying to them. It’s our job as believers to share the truth. What someone does with the Truth is up to them. We cannot control that. But we have to share.

 

The Gospel is offensive. So, there is no use to trying to make it not so. You can hold kindness and truth in the same hand. You can hold compassion and critical thinking in the same hand.

 

God is not a God of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). God knows exactly who He is and he knows exactly who YOU/I are. You and I are not in the wrong bodies. We do not get to decided our gender. It is decided for us.

 

Although some may not like what I have to say, please feel free to prove be wrong.

 

Does not matter what you identify as, you bleed either XX or XY.