What Connects Us As Women?

For some time I have wrestled with the question; what connects us as women?

It’s somewhat of a loaded question when you consider the many differences of woman: married, single, widowed, children, no children, age, employment status, rural, urban, limited income, comfortable financially, cultural background, etc. (not to mention personality traits).

Consider this: a woman stands looking out her living room window, chin quivering, watching her firstborn walk to their kindergarten class wondering if they, and you, are ready for this next step in life. Another woman, with a lump in her throat, watches from the kitchen window as her youngest child backs out of the driveway with the car loaded to the roof with first-time college items and again you wonder if the world, and you, are ready for this step in life. Then another woman, with a tear in the corner of her eye, sits on a stool going through a lifetime of treasures as her mom prepares to move to a nursing home and you wonder how much longer you’ll have her in your life.

Your heart strings might be pulled because of the situations they are in, but what REALLY connects us to each of these women?

This got me thinking, and still has me thinking, what really connects us as women? Our demographics? Our interests? Stages in life? Workplace situations? Beliefs?

What connects a 20 year old single woman, and a 40 year old divorced woman, and a 60 year old widowed woman? Singleness? Life experiences? Circumstances?

On the outside, sometimes we have nothing in common, other time situations and circumstances connect us, but can there be more than our external surroundings or our situations in life which link us to each other . . . especially us as women?

I don’t know if you have faces and names for each of these scenarios, but stay with me as I continue to contemplate and wrestle with another question.

What connects a farmer’s wife from the prairies, to a CEO in Vancouver, to a teenager trafficked in Southeast Asia? I would suggest on the outside there is typically nothing which connects each of these individuals, however if we dig deeper and put on our wide-angle lens I think we can find the connection.

As women, we are more than the circumstances we have been through, we are more than the demographic we are part of, we are more than a statistic. As women . . . we matter. We matter to God!

Genesis 1:27 says, God created us “in His image”. What could make us more valuable than being created in God’s image?

Isaiah 43:1 says, “I have redeemed you; I have called you by name”. We have been bought back and called by name – that’s personal!

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For you are God's masterpiece”. We have been made distinctly, complex by our Creator.

Typically our interests, our stages in life, the experiences we've been through, etc. connect us. I would like to suggest the deeper connection to each of these women comes from something significantly bigger than a life event or an experience. I would suggest our connection to each other comes from God. We are created in His image and we represent the heart of God. This makes us different and unique from our male counterparts, but we both clearly represent the essence of God. Side by side, equal in His sight, created in His image.

We are connected because we matter to God.

Whatever the situation or circumstance we find ourselves in we need to remember:

• We are uniquely and intricately designed by the Master Creator
• We are God’s masterpiece
• We are redeemed
• We are loved
• We are valuable

We matter to God and I hope we matter to each other – that’s what connect us to each other.

Jo-Ann