“And then my soul saw you and it kind of went, “Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you.”

— Anon

For me, this speaks of meeting each of my children for the first time. That first moment of wonder packaged within a level of intimacy that only a parent can comprehend. When your eyes first lock on one another and the most intense wave of love washes over you, but never dissipates. It completes you. It changes you completely and forever. You hold your child for the first time and there’s a fragrance that you inhale within your lungs that is unique and exempt from every living creature save a newborn child. It lingers for but a short while and is still faintly fragrant underneath the soft fragrance of the powders, lotions and fabric softener. It is, I believe, the final remnants of the scent of heaven. The residual touch from Jesus’ lips as He blesses each precious new life in the womb, in that painful surrender to the realm of matter, with the heartbreaking knowledge that He may never kiss it again.

Whether mother or father in our parental role, gender is of no consequence. Each child in a family is a precious and sacred gift from God. Each child is a life we are privileged to share, to nurture, to guide and to treasure for a but a whisper in time. All Christian parents are aware of this because we know full well that these children are not fully ours, but God’s. And as such, we learn through our parenting journey, that “playing favourites” and showing favouritism is not only foolish and selfish, but incredibly damaging to each child and the entire family dynamic.

Perhaps this is why God has placed us in families, no matter what form they may take. We have the stereotypical nuclear families – mum, dad, and one to however many offspring; or blended families with some children having two or more mothers, fathers and stepsiblings. We have same-sex families – two mothers or two fathers and their children.  However, what sustains, upholds and unifies any family, regardless of their composition, is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 teaches us that there is nothing greater.

Let us journey back in time to the first family. Those two perfect human beings created in God’s image, who walked in such innocence and surrender, in untarnished unity with their Creator. They were naked, but completely unaware of any vulnerability or shame in their nakedness. From the moment the sun’s rays kissed the edge of the horizon at dawn, to when the deep hues of cobalt and sapphire blue swallowed the golden at dusk, they wandered safely. They swam in crystal blue streams, ate delicious fresh plants for food and loved without any shame, selfishness or hurtful intentions. There was no envy. No competition. There was no inequality. But we know that all was lost at the fall. Satan slithered his way into paradise in an attempt to usurp God and he succeeded. We fell.

But here we are today. We breathe, we laugh, we love, and we cry. But, above all, we live. Despite our transgression, we still are. We are men. We are women. We are His. Our Heavenly Father could have wept, regretted and removed us from existence at the moment the veil fell from Adam and Eve’s eyes, but He did not. Instead, He fought. He did not surrender us to the power of the enemy, but clothed His first children, provided for them, and although there were consequences beyond their imagining for what they did, He loved on them so hard that we are here today.

Thousands of years passed as God continued to intervene, to support, educate, govern and love on His people. The Israelites rebelled. God loved. They turned away from Him again and again. God loved. God gave them commandments, instructions, rewards and blessings and it still wasn’t enough to save them from themselves. So, God loved. And He fought.

Then, on a cool autumn night, the final battle began. Having kissed so many souls goodbye, Jesus surrendered Himself to become one with a woman. Fulfilling centuries of prophecies, the Prince of Heaven chose a woman. He submitted Himself to the earthly authority of human parents, but first and foremost His trust – The Father’s trust – was in a woman.  Although Joseph was Mary’s husband, Joseph was not His father. Jesus had no human father. But Jesus had a human mother.

Throughout the hours and hours I have thought about Jesus in all manner of contexts and paradigms, it’s the fighter in Jesus that I often overlook. Healer, teacher, friend. Redeemer, Saviour, Justifier and Sanctifier. Rarely as a fighter. But that is precisely the role that He undertook when He took up the greatest weapon in history to slay and defeat sin and death. In His thirty plus years walking the very earth that His Word brought into being, He was waging a war against sin and evil and preparing to bring it to its final defeat – the moment He walked out of that tomb.

Jesus’ whole purpose for saving us is to restore us to where and how we should be. He says that “we shall be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48). As such, we are given the most powerful weapon against all the forces that seek to destroy that perfection and armed with that weapon – The Holy Spirit – now, we can fight. And we have been charged to fight against every corruption unleashed upon all of creation since that dire day in the Garden of Eden. This includes the moment that inequality was birthed. A balance in the gender dynamic that was never God’s design.

Jesus made it clear that He did not come to bring peace, but to bring a sword (Mt. 10:34-36) and to teach that the old ways are past, and the New Kingdom has arrived. (Mt.3:2; Mt.4:17; Mk.1:15). Knowing full well the mortal dangers faced by women, and the cultural prejudices and discriminations thousands of years ago, Jesus chose twelve men as the adventurers in His team. Those that could defend themselves physically if need be, and who would not fall prey to the denigrations faced by the female of the species at that time. We can see Jesus’ love for, and inclusion of women, in all aspects of His ministry where it was safe to do so. We now live in a time where God’s vision of unity and equality is gradually being realised throughout the secular world, and where the Church should be at the forefront of this change, we are sadly, and not unnoticeably being left behind. When we respect the foundations Jesus was clearly laying for all humankind two thousand years ago in His humility regardless of gender, we’re blessed with a glimpse – a foretaste – of what we, His bride, are ready for today.  A true revival of equality and inclusivity in His Church. From His defence of the woman caught in adultery in John 4; to His selection of the Samaritan Woman to be the very first preacher of the Good News in history; and to the incredible blessing of revealing Himself as the defeater of death, risen from the tomb to … a woman.

Therefore, I now ponder during this time in our LCA, why some still pick and choose their scripture for their own ends. Is this not the selective subjectivism that Luther and the protestant giants on the shoulders of whom we stand, stood, fought and died to reform? Hasn’t our Book of Concord, the biblical confessions of our church, penned and held fast for centuries, endured because of our Lutheran commitment to truth?

In closing, I return to the beginning and to the spark of life in the womb. Back to when soul and flesh become one and begin the divinely instituted metamorphosis of cells into the amazing living, moving, breathing and feeling beings that are us. Human beings. Made in the image of God. (Gen. 1:27). And in the original KJV “And in the day they were created, He called them ‘man’ (Gen 5:27). Not male. Not female. Equal.

It matters not the gender of the child within the womb. Each child has untapped promise and potential and is of equal value and beloved by the Creator Who placed that child in that very womb. Regardless of the chromosomes or the hormones, Jesus gave His life once for all (Hebrews 10:1-18). Furthermore, we know of Jesus’ love for children and I believe that those who seek to impede the course of God’s will for His children should heed the very, very dire warning that Jesus gave in Luke 17:2. For, are we not all God’s little children, “His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”? (Eph. 2:10)

So, I cannot cease to advocate for the call Christ placed on my life from my infant baptism, and on the lives of all, regardless of gender, who are convinced within their very spirits of the same calling. I will stand for my life purpose in Jesus, who has advocated for me since He first kissed my soul in my mother’s womb. Because, at that moment “my soul saw Jesus and it kind of went, “Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you. And I will follow You.”