5th December 2022
There’s actually two accounts of creation in Genesis. One account is in chapter 1 and it says
“So God created humankind In his image, In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27) In chapter 2 we read the more familiar account where God says “it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a suitable helper for him” then removes Adam’s rib and creates Eve.
Some people believe that the first human was both male and female, made in God’s image. They argue that the account in Chapter 2 is about God separating out the male and female, in order to create two humans not one.
I like this idea because it reflects the nature of our Triune God better. God is complete, in perfect relationship and perfect harmony and companionship with Godself through the trinity. It seems to me that if God separated mankind into male and female the purpose would be for us to reflect this perfect harmony and companionship.
It also means that if all humanity was formed in God’s image it needs all of humanity to reflect God’s image. We are like a kind of mosaic mirror. In order to reflect the whole each piece of the mosaic needs to be whole and present, alone they are each too small to reflect a full image, but together they will not only reflect, but will shimmer, as each tile of the mosaic casts light in a slightly different way. Humanity is a collective, a whole, in order to fulfil our created purpose we need one another, we need each other to be whole and healthy and spirit filled. If some of us are broken, all of us are broken.
This is why “the battle of the sexes” as our culture often brands it is so horrible. We are not supposed to be in battle, we are supposed to be in harmony, we are not supposed to be trying to get one up on each other, we are supposed to be one human race.
We talked yesterday about what it means to be a man, and there are similar questions to be asked about what it means to be a woman, but perhaps a better question we should be focusing on is “what does it mean to be a human”
For my GCSE I studied the wonderful poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling, a poem that lists all the virtues of a “real man.” They are mostly virtues I would want to emulate in life, I want to walk with kings but keep the common touch, I want to be able to dream but not make dreams my master, I want to be able to keep my head when all about me are losing theirs. But I’m not a man. These are human virtues. I’m not sure I have an answer to what the difference between “masculinity” and “femininity” is, though I know it’s certainty a conversation the world will be having to face over the next few years, but I do know what it is to be a human, and I think that if we all focused on that a bit more, we probably wouldn’t do too bad.
16days #16daysofactivism #orangetheworld
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
