Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28
In my mind the most feminine woman is one with an eye and ear for others and a heart for God.
Emily Barns
Lifegiver
Imagine the command to be fruitful and multiply without women! Perhaps for a woman there is no more beautiful role than that of a life-giver. And we do ourselves a grave injustice if we limit that role to only childbirth.
Tammy Maltby, in her book Lifegiving, defines lifegiving as God’s fingerprint on the heart of women. “It’s who God created us to be,” she continues, reminding us that all our acts of love and service, the daily offerings of lifegiving, are seen by our unseen God. Women who are committed to developing and expressing the lifegiving aspect of their natures embrace the value of their drive to nurture and nourish life around them. They are compassionate, caring, thoughtful and creative.
In Genesis 3:20, Adam changed Woman’s name to Eve because she was to become the mother of all living things. Life givers is who we are whether or not we ever have children. We not only give physical life, but spiritual life, intellectual life and cultural life. The holidays we plan, the music we play, the candles we light, the scrapbooks we keep, the meals we prepare, the words we say all give life.
Orientation to mother is given by God to women, our desire to nurture, to nourish, to support and encourage. The nurturing aspects of women display the glory of El Shaddai!
El Shaddai means God Almighty. “El” pointing to the power of God Himself, but “Shaddai” seems to be derived from another word meaning “breast”, which implies that Shaddai signifies the One who nourishes, supplies, and satisfies. We immediately think of God who designed a woman’s breasts to give life and support to her newborn. It is God as “El” who helps, but it is God as “Shaddai” who abundantly blesses. As life-giving women, we bring glory to God when we nurture and nourish those around us.
The issue today is whether women today in the process of pursuing respect in the career world have lost something in their identity as women. Who is making “homemade” anything today?
Who is bringing fresh flowers, lighting candles for the family to enjoy, thinking about the extra touches, the seemingly insignificant lifegiving activities that nurture and nourish, that create warmth and security at home and in society? It is time to revive this powerful facet of our natures and rediscover our full capacity as lifegivers and live the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. We are life-givers by design. God Himself fashioned us. There is a desire deep down in each one of us to live out this role. How beautiful it is that we find that our powerful potential as lifegivers is unleashed in Christ, the Ultimate Lifegiver!
For Further Study
- Read Acts 16:11-15 and describe how Lydia functioned in her role as a lifegiver.
- In what ways has the emphasis in our culture on “women working” robbed them of their God-given design?
- Share some ways you see yourself as a lifegiver in this season of your life.