Truth

Yesterday DH and I took The Most Adorable Granddaughter#2 out for lunch to celebrate her birthday. I now have two teenage granddaughters! I’m not sure what that makes me except … old.

While bewailing the fact that they are growing up ever so quickly, I am super proud of the young women they are becoming.

Young women. I remember back in my teens when people stopped referring to me as a child and started referring to me as a young woman. It made me feel special. Grown up. As if something had occurred to mark the transition from childhood to womanhood.

But what exactly is womanhood? Or, in deference to the question that has floated around the internet, what is a woman?

Back in the dark ages (aka 1970s), those of us who were around, could hardly have failed to have heard Helen Reddy sing these lyrics:

I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an' pretend
'Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again

Oh yes, I am wise 

But it's wisdom born of pain 

Yes, I've paid the price 

But look how much I gained 

If I have to, I can do anything 

I am strong (strong) 

I am invincible (invincible) 

I am woman. 

 In 2022, where is that woman? Who is that woman? Why is it that we have gone back to pretending? Pretending that we no longer know who we are? As ridiculous as it may sound, some of the “best” minds of this age cannot answer the question, “What is a woman?” 

It began when the Supreme Court Nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was unable to define what a woman is at her confirmation hearing. I know next to nothing about how American law and its legal system works, and would have paid little attention to the headlines, except that from that beginning, it seemed to escalate and I saw it popping up on Downunder newsfeeds, where it seemed that whoever was asked the question, failed to respond. Or at least, failed to give a satisfactory, and accurate, answer. 

And then there is the recent documentary that has just been released by Dailywire, “What is a woman?” So far I have only seen the trailer, but it seems ridiculous and yet incredibly sad, that the question has to be asked and no one appears to be able to answer it. 

When Helen Reddy sang those words, every child on every street corner knew what a woman was, and, yet, today, politicians to professors to philosophers, cannot say with any confidence what a woman is. What was once thought so obvious, so simple, now has no answer? 

Is it because these days we are so politically correct, so “woke”, so afraid of offending someone with the truth, that we won’t state with any conviction what we know to be true? Apparently Ketanji Brown Jackson, while unable to provide a definition, stated that while she didn’t know what a woman was, she did know that she was a woman. I find that incredible: “I don’t know what one is, but I am one”. What was she basing that on? What can any woman base her belief that she is a woman on, if she doesn’t know what the definition is? How can we know what is true if we don’t know what truth is? 

There is only one place to find truth, and when we open that wonderful Book, one doesn’t have to look very far to find answers.

In the very first chapter of Genesis – the opening chapter of the whole Bible – we read:

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them (Genesis1:27, NKJV).

We are told God created male and female. We could argue that female does not mean woman, except Chapter 2 then follows with these verses:

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. …

 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

And Adam said:

“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

 

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:7, 20-24, NKJV.)

 Adam knew immediately what a woman was: she was someone who had been taken out of man, created just for him to be a helper and companion. She was like him and yet she was distinctive from him – otherwise he would have simply called her “man”. But she was different. She complemented man. Together they were to form an incredible partnership where they would become one flesh.  

The first man and woman. Male and female. Husband and wife. But if we keep reading, we learn something else. In chapter three, after sin had entered the world, we read God’s judgement on the man and the woman:

To the woman He said:

“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16, NKJV.)

A woman is biologically female. As half of the human race, it is to her that has been given the unique privilege of being able to carry a child and give birth. She is a nurturer. A bringer forth of new life.

Woman. With female DNA and female parts and female reproductive capacity. The fact that some are unable to conceive or give birth does not make them any less female or any less a woman. It is to the female species of the human race that this particular reproductive capacity has been given. And only to them.

Could someone born male be a woman?

Not according to the Bible’s definition. A biological male was not created from the first man. A biological male was never designed to be a wife. A biological male cannot conceive a child nor nurture and carry that child to term nor give birth. It’s not possible.

This age might try to argue against these truths. This age might say that we know better. This age might argue that biological sex is immaterial and that gender is a social construct. To all those arguments I have but one answer: I know of only one place where truth never changes – one place where truth has remained the same throughout all ages - and it is that one place – the Bible – where I will look for truth. And it is my prayer, that it is that one place where my granddaughters - and grandson - will turn to for answers.

Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.

Psalm 119:89, NKJV

[In all fairness to Katanji Brown Jackson, I suspect the confirmation process was a stressful situation and one where, as we would say, she was between a rock and a hard place. Probably whichever way she answered, or didn’t answer, some group or groups were going to get offended. I’m not trying to excuse her, but since I know little of her, I don’t wish to malign her either. I’m more interested in how it has grown from that one question to something that has become indicative of how ridiculous our times are.]