Today I celebrate you my mothers, sisters, friends, journeymates.

Yes, all of you.

Maybe I over think things.

But chances are, if we’ve spent more than five minutes together
(or if I’ve read your blog)

I’ve seen a glimpse of who God is through you

Even if you don’t believe or have the slightest idea what to do with God.

Chances are good you’ve shown me something new about this Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer I am pursuing

I would love to write a bit about all of you, but really, that would be entirely too long and entirely too creepy.

So instead, I’ll focus on just a few of you. You all are like the fingerprints of God on my life. I see you, and I know where God is working.

 

 

Mom

For your sacrifice and your tears shed.  For your endless patience and ongoing love.
For teaching me to walk, to read and how to guide children’s hearts close to the God who created and loves them so much.

Eshet Chayil!  woman of Valor!

 

Momma Vicki

For holding a light on the path a I have walked deeper in to the heart of God.  For teaching me to dream – and dream big – even (and especially) when the castle in the sky falls and shatters.  For helping me see the treasures found only in the dark times.

Eshet Chayil!   Woman of valor!

Cadence

You’re so young, but you’ve taught me more than almost anyone.  The world is still magic to you.  Your wonder reminds me to look deeper and to slow down.  Your innocence sets my heart for justice on fire.   You single-handedly transformed me from a girl shaking in her boots into a momma bear (who still sometimes shakes in her boots) and you teach me more every day just how strong I am.

Eshet chayil!  Woman of valor!

 

 

But it’s not just the women I know, love or read about that I am celebrating today.

Today, I find myself sitting in the odd space between grief and celebration.  Between tragedy and hope.  I am treading a fine line.

 

To the nameless women

The voiceless women

The women who have been beaten and abused

To the women who are broken

You who have been ostracized by your communities

 

Eshet Chayil.  Woman of valor.

 

Because in you

I see the ones whom our Lord chose to give the riches of the Kingdom to while Christ walked this earth.

I see the one who washed His feet.

I see the one who was healed by just grasping the hem of His robe.

I hear the voice announcing that “He has risen!”

The herald that all things are being made right now.

I see the face of a girl cast out by her community, and bravely bearing the Savior in her body.

 

It seems to me that God has always spoken quite loudly to women – to the broken, cast off, cast out, forsaken and abused especially.

Which leads me, on one hand, to grieve and groan over a Kingdom still yet coming.  And so many of us raise our voices in a rallying cry against these injustices – as we well should.

 

But on the other hand…

in a world where 1 in 3 women was abused today

and with a God who routinely sends word through Ruth and Rahab, Tamar and Mary, and those of us at the well during the slow time of the day

perhaps, in the midst of these atrocities,

God has something huge to say.

 

Perhaps there is a message welling up so powerful and wonderful and true that no trafficker can silence it and no abuser can beat it out of us.

 

Perhaps, as women are prone to do from time to time, we are about to usher in some life all over this place.

So today, celebrate!  Cheer for the women in your life!  Scream it out loud!

And advocate – dear Lord – advocate!  Speak up for your sisters whose voice falls only on deaf ears. Mourn.  Grieve as our sisters are dying.

 

But in the midst of all the ruckus, don’t forget to listen.

 

Our Redeemer, Creator and Sustainer is on the move.

and the movement might just be through us.

 

 

For more posts honoring and celebrating the women in our lives check out the rest of the synchroblog here!