Connections

Consider the following women for a moment.

A young mom sends her oldest child off to their first day of kindergarten and as she's watching them cross the street for the very first time, with a tear in her eye, she wonders if that big world out there is going to swallow her child. Then there is a mom who now stands at a different place in life as she looks out her kitchen window watching her youngest child climb into their car. They are getting ready to pull out of the driveway heading off to college or university for the first time and she finds herself, with a tear in her eye, wondering if they're equipped for the world they are entering. Then there is another women who is in an equally difficult place when she has to make the challenging decision to put her mom into a nursing home because she needs more care. And again a tear rolls down her cheek.

It's interesting how each of these women are experiencing an emotional pull of her heart-strings; wondering if she has made the right decision, or if they're equipped to step into the world and yet they are all at different stages in life.

I've also been thinking about what connects these women... A single woman in her 20's, a divorced woman in her 40's and a widowed woman in her 60's. Their connection has to be more than just their singleness.

The previous women have led me to ask a question regarding the following women. What connects a farmer's wife from the prairies, to a woman who is a CEO in Vancouver, to a young girl trafficked in Southeast Asia? What do any of these women have in common and what could possibly be the connecting point for each of these women? There has to be something more than money, location or social status that connects us as women.

I have been pondering the previous questions for a number of months now and I believe life experiences and circumstances connect us, at least in the beginning, but I still think there's something more.

Consider the following Bible verses:

Is. 49:15b-16a says, “Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands.”

Is. 43:1b,4a “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honoured, and I love you,”

Jer. 31:3 says, “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.”

Gen. 1:27 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

As women, I think we can be connected through our work, where we live, who we're related to, etc, but even greater than those things is our connection to each other because we are God's daughters, created in His image, redeemed and precious in His sight, and He loves us and will never forget us.

In this world where distance is only a concept realized when we need to drive for more than a few minutes and instant is normal, not the exception; perhaps we need to consider that what connects us to another woman is our DNA. She is my sister and we both have the same Dad. Can we take the resources we have and reach out to the women in our neighbourhood, community, nation and around the globe and make a difference in the life of another woman? Because we are connected. . . Because she is my sister. . . Because we have the same Dad!

Jo-Ann