Let's carry on with the theme of being made in the image of God since it is such a wonderful and powerful concept. I believe that we will uncover a lot of our identity as we begin to understand this truth. Genesis 2 expands on the day man and woman were made as mentioned in Genesis 1. Genesis 2:18-25 covers the process of God removing the woman from the man thereby creating one man and one woman - they were still mankind but represented in two people. Why did God do this, why did he make woman? Who is 'woman'?
In my understanding, when God made mankind he made Adam fully masculine and fully feminine, perfectly balanced in his heart, just as He is. God thought it was not good that mankind be this way, He tried and tried to find a companion for Adam, but couldn't find a suitable helper for him, so He separated masculine and feminine. He separated them so that they would need each other, depend on each other's differences and so that they would love. Since the beginning of creation, God has been separating things, light from dark, land from sea, day from night and female from male. It's a beautiful picture of a very necessary contrast. Without the separation and the contrast neither could be appreciated. How could we know light if we never knew dark, how could we appreciate land if we never knew sea, how could we understand woman if we didn't know man? A lot of who we are can also be understood by who we are not. The comparison is extremely helpful don't you think?
I have come to the conclusion that women express the heart of God femininely and men masculinely. Both reflect the heart of God which is to love and to be loved. Does this help on our journey to discover what it means to be a woman? I would love to hear your thoughts.
The Being a Woman book and worksheets are available here.