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Happy Day to you, Dear Readers!
I have made progress on my cleaning out project with a few more boxes delivered to the thrift store. We are having an exceptionally pretty day here in Central Texas after all the rains and flooding of the past couple of weeks. We are grateful for the rain! And we are still praying for those who have suffered from the floods.
Last week, I had the opportunity to reconnect with a friend, Janet Davis, over lunch. We shared with each other the journeys we have experienced these past few years. She is always an inspiration to me and I am blessed to know her. And you can know her as well. She is the author of another great book on biblical women entitled The Feminine Soul: Surprising Ways the Bible Speaks to Women and available on Amazon at this link:
As I was reacquainting myself with her book this week, I was reminded of a perplexing story found in both the gospel of Mark and the gospel of Matthew. Janet does an amazing job of walking her readers through this story. It is the story of Jesus healing the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter. We don’t know either of their names, but the event was significant enough for two gospel writers to include it in their chronicling of Jesus’ ministry.
Jesus is the Master Teacher. He knows how to make connections with his audience–whether they agree with him or not–he makes his point, his truth, his explanation, or his reason clear. He gets to the heart of the matter with efficiency of word and eloquence of thought. And he often uses women in his examples and stories. One parable that is familiar to most people is the one about the woman searching for the lost coin. It is tucked into the middle of Luke 15 where we also find the parables of the shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to search for the one lost sheep and the parable of the prodigal son–or as Timothy Keller likes to call it, the Prodigal God parable. (Prodigal means “extravagant”–not “wayward” as many of us had assumed.)
I was struck recently with a realization that my own eyes and heart had overlooked. It is easy to see the shepherd looking for the lost sheep as God/Jesus looking for lost souls. It is easy to see the father of the prodigal son as God/Jesus accepting the wayward son back home. Yet, I have to admit, even I had not really envisioned the woman looking for her lost coin as God/Jesus looking for one soul worth so much. But there it is–Jesus is trying to explain to his listeners just how important each individual is to God and God is the one who initiates the search and who welcomes the return and then all of heaven rejoices. Jesus is using a woman in his parable as a portrayal of God. Hmm . . . makes you think, doesn’t it?
Well, what got me to thinking about that particular parable is my own house-cleaning project. So, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my boxes and make another thrift store delivery. Have a great week! And don’t forget to celebrate the way God found YOU!
When someone mentions Mary and Martha, what comes to mind? If you know anything about them, you immediately associate their names with the scene from Luke 10:38-42 where Martha is complaining to Jesus about Mary not helping her in the kitchen. I am sure one of the reasons that scene is so well remembered is that it is set in a place where women have traditionally been known as the workers: the kitchen.
(On a side note: speaking of the kitchen . . . why do people assume women should be “the cook” at home, yet if you talk about a “professional chef,” a man’s picture comes to mind?!)
Back to Mary and Martha, and more specifically Martha, the sister of Lazarus and Mary and possibly even the owner of the home where the three of them lived. Luke 10:38 says, “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him” (emphasis added). I want to challenge you today to change your foremost memory of Martha and get her out of the kitchen! Hopefully you already know the “rest of the story,” but allow me to share some of the insights I have gleaned over the years . . . Read More
Dear Readers,
I really did not mean to be absent the whole month of April, but here it is May 8 already!
I have recently read a fascinating book that has caused me to want to do some more digging in scripture. The title of the book is Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel and the author is Rev. Dr. Wilda (Wil) Gafney, a seminary professor at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas. Her research into the geographical regions and cultures throughout the Ancient Near East–and outside of Israel–brings great understanding to the work of prophets (both women and men) that worked within Israel. These women and men prophets were from many different cultures and many different religions. Some were prophets for other gods. (Remember the story of Elijah against the prophets of Baal?) I am grateful to have found this book and to have learned such helpful insights from it.
I have to admit, that as a child and teenager in a denomination where the Bible was taught effectively, there was not much teaching time given to the history of other people groups outside of the Jews or outside of the Bible’s words. Looking back, I realize that my learning was very narrowly focused. The benefit of that approach is it gave me a deep understanding of Christianity and its Jewish roots from a young age. The down side of such an approach is that I tended to view the Bible as a history of the whole world, instead of what it really is: a story–some factually historical and some literary and some wisdom and some poetry–of one people group and how others interacted with that people group we know as the Jews, God’s chosen people. It is still the greatest story ever told and is our best resource for learning about how through the Jews, God gave us our Savior, Jesus Christ.
While the “Old Testament” or First Testament or Hebrew Scriptures are sometimes difficult to understand, they are the background for the New Testament. And while some Christians tend to avoid the Hebrew Scriptures, we have to remember that when Paul reminded Timothy in his second letter to him that “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NRSV), Paul was talking about the Old Testament–the New Testament did not exist yet! The Old Testament was the only Bible Jesus knew. Therefore, if we want to be more like Jesus, we need to study what he studied, including the Old Testament.
So, after reading Daughters of Miriam, I have some new studying to do. Let me show you where I am starting . . . Read More
Why is it that when the “disciples” are mentioned, we automatically picture in our minds the 12 men named in scripture that Jesus chose to be some of his closest followers? Why do we not also conjure up the more complete picture of the named women who followed Jesus, traveled with Jesus, sat and learned from Jesus, supported Jesus financially, and were present in greater numbers at the cross and the tomb than his so-called “closest” followers? I can tell you why . . .
Do you have a favorite coffee mug? Does it have a story? I have several, but today’s mug is my Starbucks Cyprus mug given to me by my good friend KayLyn. She used to live in Cyprus when she was a missionary to a Near Eastern country. Her mother and I got to travel together to go visit KayLyn on that beautiful island country in the Mediterranean. Several years later, KayLyn gave me my Cyprus mug because she knew I would enjoy it and the memories it would conjure up.
Some of those memories are of the many things KayLyn taught me about being a missionary. She is my “shero” for being willing to go live and work in the Middle East as a single Christian woman. Much of what I have learned about living and working cross-culturally I learned from KayLyn because I watched her live out her principles in some very difficult places. I believe I had such an easy transition living in Romania because of the things KayLyn helped me understand years before I ever went to live overseas. She wasn’t purposefully teaching me and I wasn’t intentionally her student. Yet within the context of our friendship and mutual encouragement, I learned things that I never would’ve picked up from a book. Thank you, KayLyn!
Which brings me to the biblical women I want to talk about this week: Lois and Eunice. Do you know who they were?
I love making memories! I try to be very intentional about creating ways to remember the time, the people, the place, the purpose, and the joy of the event. I am blessed to apply this philosophy of life to the times I spend with my granddaughters. What a gift from the Lord! And what an honor given to me by their amazing parents, my stepdaughter and her husband, who allow me to “BE” Grammy. (Thank you, Angela and Forrest!) Spending time with these three little girls, Celeste (almost 7) and her twin sisters, Tallis and Brynn (almost 4), is always a chance to do something with them that will help them remember how much they were loved and cared for by their grandparents.
This love of making memories goes back to my own childhood. I inherited this trait from my own mother who knew how to build the anticipation so that when the experience actually happened, you were ready to enjoy every ounce of it! She taught me how to get excited with joyful expectations for just about anything. This love of making memories was the motivating factor, I’m sure, for my being high school yearbook editor and for enjoying travel photography of my worldwide adventures. I like to remember things visually. (So why am I not an avid scrapbooker?)
What has prompted all these thoughts about family memory making is that Mark and I just spent two fun (and too brief) days with our granddaughters and their parents. We made cookies with the rolling pin and cookie cutters. We read books snuggled under the covers on the big couch. We played board games on a rainy day. We put together a tiny plastic vet clinic where the plastic vet helped the plastic horse get a “flea out of its throat.” We watched the girls “go really fast” on their bikes outside. We had family fun!
Which brings me to my biblical woman for this week: Mary, the mother of Jesus and the family memory maker. How do I know she was the family memory maker? Let me see if I can explain . . .
Did you know that Sunday, March 8, is International Women’s Day (IWD)? Most of the world celebrates it while the US hardly notices. In many countries, March 8 is celebrated like the US celebrates Mother’s Day, yet in most places, all women are honored–not just mothers. I like to celebrate IWD by donating to one of my favorite organizations: Global Women, a Christian nonprofit striving to bring positive change to the lives of vulnerable women around the world. You can learn more and donate online at http://www.GlobalWomenGo.org. Your gift to Global Women will help:
– stop sex trafficking in Moldova
– birth babies in Haiti
– educate girls in Zambia and India
– develop sewing skills in Romania, Myanmar, and Uganda
– bring clean water to Zambia
– and more!
While thinking about the needs of women around the world, I also watched a few TED Talks this week on various women’s issues. If you have not discovered TED Talks yet, you are missing out! Go to TED.com and spend some time learning some incredible things on just about any topic.
Then my mind started wondering which biblical woman I wanted to tell you about this week. I decided on one who traveled internationally herself. Her name was Phoebe. She is only mentioned in two verses in the New Testament. You will find her in Romans 16:1-2, the famous text ascribed to the Apostle Paul. While the verses may not be very enlightening about the details of her life, the context and a historical understanding of these verses reveal a great deal about the role she had in the church and Paul’s support and encouragement of that role. Read on . . .
I am currently in Birmingham, Alabama, to celebrate a friend’s wedding. A former boss and always-mentor of mine, Sheryl, retired last spring from a long and fruitful career and is now getting married to Wally. I am thrilled for both of them! Getting to come to their wedding gives me a chance to visit other dear friends and mentors such as Barbara, Andrea, Joyce, Joye, and Denise. I have been blessed my whole life to be surrounded by women who modeled a Christ-like lifestyle, challenged me academically, and set the bar high professionally. Their examples taught me so much more than their words ever could. Which brings me to this week’s topic: biblical women mentors (Can we change that word to “womentors”?) *sigh* . . . probably not.
Two biblical pairs I want us to consider this week are Naomi and Ruth from the Hebrew Scriptures and Elizabeth and Mary from the New Testament. I want to share some of the unique aspects of their relationships that have informed my own aspirations of the kind of mentor I want to be. Most of us are aware that the story of Naomi and Ruth is found first in the book of Ruth in the Hebrew Scriptures, yet we may not know the significance of Ruth’s name being mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the first chapter of Matthew. And while we may know that Elizabeth was the relative to whom Mary ran when she found out she would be the mother of Jesus, we may not see on the surface the prophetic quality of Elizabeth’s greeting as revealed in the first chapter of Luke.
Laura Savage-Rains 