‘She
is the crescendo, the final, astonishing work of God. Woman. In one last
flourish creation comes to a finish not with Adam, but with Eve. She is the Master's finishing touch… Eve is… breathtaking.’
(‘Captivating’,
Stasi Eldredge)
“But I am not Eve”, I
tell myself.
“I’m plain. I’m nothing special. I’m ugly. I’m impure. I have
too many flaws to be a finishing touch. I could never be described as
breaktaking. I’m a mistake.”
How many of us have heard these words in
our minds or even on our lips? We know the creation of Woman. We may even love it.
And yet we separate ourselves from it. We place Eve of a pedestal and marvel at
the creativity of her Creator and stand in awe and wonder at the glory and
goodness of God. We proclaim “Yes! This
is the crown of creation!", yet we reject that truth about ourselves.
But here is the truth we so often neglect:
Eve is not a goddess. Eve is a woman. She’s a woman just like you and me.
Eve’s innate beauty is the way she reflects
the beauty of the God whose image and likeness she was made in, and for that
reason her beauty is the very thing that will inevitably come under the most
attack from the enemy – who doesn’t want her to know her true identity. He
doesn’t want her to know the power of who she truly is.
You, too, bear the image and likeness of
your Creator. You, too, have power in your identity. You, too, are breaktaking.
… And so you, too, are a threat to the
enemy. And he SHOULD be afraid of you! But, sister, you have no reason to fear
yourself! We daren’t recognise our own beauty because Satan has planted his own
fear in us. So we criticise and fantasise and agonise.
Catherine of Siena said “Be who you were created to be and you will
set the world on fire!” Well, let me ask you this: What would happen if each of us were to truly know, embrace who we are
as daughters of God. Can you envision the day that Satan realises He no
longer has any hold on us because we have no doubt in our God-given identity
and inheritance? ‘He conquered by a woman, and now a woman conquers him. She that was
once his weapon is now his destroyer, brave and invincible.’ (John
Crysostom).
‘You
shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord.’ (Isaiah 62:3)
You, dear sister. YOU shall be a
crown of beauty.
You ARE a crown of beauty. You are
the crown of all creation, and your Father looks at His creation in you and
declares “Behold, it is very good!”
… And no, I am not Eve. But I am
something greater. I am a unique creation. That uniqueness means that womankind
– the crown of creation – is not complete without every single one of us. You are necessary for Woman to be complete.
