Backwards and in High Heels

It’s time for another post on this blog. I’ve been working like a busy bee putting together a book composed of most of these posts. They’ve been edited and polished and elaborated on to the umpteenth degree, and now I’m working on a cover. Not that you asked. Just thought I’d throw that in.

These tasks, all done as a labor of love, have kept me too involved to write much of anything on any of my blogs. Yet this week at least three things have “conspired” to make me say, “Okay, that’s it. I just have to write a post on Eve’s Sisters."

1. A teacher at church mentioned that women in the Bible often made her think of Ginger Rogers, dancing partner of Fred Astaire. A talented dancer, sometimes she seemed overshadowed by Fred. As our teacher reminded us, she did everything that Fred Astaire did, and she did it backwards and in high heels.

2. At lunch yesterday, one of my friends began defending some of the women in the Bible, especially Mary the mother of Christ, and I again thought of how women are sometimes/often outshined by the men in their lives. Yes, in this case, Mary was the mother of the Savior, not the Redeemer himself, and in some religions she’s highly, maybe even equally, revered. In the scene we were discussing, however, she was seemingly being dismissed by Christ. A religious professor who just happened to be dining with us shed some light on this story and made us feel better about the situation.

3. Today I saw this headline on MSN: “Politicians are always in the spotlight, but rarely does that light shine on the women in their lives.” Hmmm. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

These three incidents reinforced my idea about women in the Bible being ultra important in the grand scheme of things, albeit behind the scenes. Who cleaned up after the 45,000 animals on Noah’s ark? Who gave birth to ten of Job’s children and then had to grieve alone while her husband was out talking with his “friends?” Who twice lived in a harem while her husband Abraham went about doing things that would eventually secure their future and his place in history? Who loved her child so much that she had her daughter Miriam hide him in the bulrushes hoping that he’d be discovered by the pharaoh’s daughter? Who nurtured Jacob’s twelve sons and daughter Miriam?

I love the stories of the Bible and believe that we can find the answers to life’s mysteries and dilemmas within its pages. At the same time, I sometimes wish Hagar, Leah, and Hannah didn’t have to dance backwards in high heels to be noticed.