So, what do we do? If we are "born of God" and "born again" and "born of the Spirit...." these are feminine references about God's action, addressing the fundamental process of being initiated into the family of God. How can there not be a feminine dimension to God? How I never made this connection until I was 45 years old is beyond me...how did THAT happen??? I will have to get back to you on that...but it continues to reinforce in my mind, the fact that NOT using all the images for God provided in Scripture is actually a HUGE issue.
Dr. Kristina Lacelle-Peterson (Chair of the Department of Religion at Houghton College) writes:
Since God is, in fact, referred to with female imagery in various biblical texts, the question is not whether using female images for God will draw us away from orthodox Christianity, but whether using exclusively male metaphors will so distort our view of God as to render our concept of God unbiblical. Put simply: If we reject an entire class of biblical metaphors do we still have a biblical [orthodox] understanding of God?Why is this all coming up now? Not fully sure. But psychologists know (yeah, I'm one of them) that when we hit midlife, we often reevaluate the first half of life, take stock, and determine what was missing and what we want to make sure we address in the second half of life. Well--what has been missing for me is how I opened this brief post: I am wanting to gain a fuller understanding of what it means for myself as a woman to reflect the image of God.
Woo Hoo! What a ride this second half is going to be!!!!!!
