Welcome!

You are a special creation of God!

Know that you have a perfect Creator who created you to glorify His name. He has perfect wisdom. He makes no mistakes. You will not find a flaw in his perfect design for your life.

By your very existence, you refute any myth of random and blind chance for your origin. No other mind could have devised your beauty and your necessary intricacies. His signature is evident in every plan He has laid for your life.

But not only do you have the privilege of pointing all seekers to Him through the wonderful and peculiar design He has for your life, his purpose is that, just by living your life according to his plan, you significantly impact this world for good.

But maybe….

hmmmm…..

maybe before you have time to begin to more fully comprehend this marvelous design, there are some particulars you should know.

You are truly different from your fellow creations, with a a different purpose and plan. So you may as well know sooner than later.

Sigh.

Okay, here we go.

First up: About where you will live. Nests are cute, but no nest-building for you. You will be homeless, constantly on the move. Sorry.

Also, hope you don’t mind having a 100% liquid diet.

Some your fellow air-breathing creatures can stay under water for quite a long time. Not you.

Sorry.

Sorry... you don’t have sonar either.

In freezing temperatures, you will die.

You also lack the ability to make any vocalizations.

Your lifespan will only be about two to six weeks.

So, actually, you are all about reproduction... but you will never see your offspring. You will die before they get to meet you. Sorry about that.

Okay, now that we have all that out of the way ....we would like to inform you that you are a very wondrous creature— you are a.....

monarch butterfly!!!

Hmmm.

You don’t seem too impressed.

Is it that thing about not having sonar? Sorry.

But, wait! You still possess lots of important things.

Sure, you won’t be seen tromping in synchronized shaggy herds across the snow-covered prairie or chirping in a nighttime summer symphony of frogs and crickets. But it’s still good.

No, really!

Well, first, you should know that your beauty is noted the world over. You are the icon of new birth. The discovery of your presence in their gardens is a special honor to countless people. Your airborne antics bring joy to millions.

Your species’ annual migration to Mexico, a place neither you nor your parents have ever been, is a fascinating mystery that continues to baffle scientists. You yourself will be a member of one of only four generations of monarchs to be hatched this year.

If you happen to be in that fourth generation, your reproduction will halted until you migrate to and begin your return from a specific location in the volcanic mountains of the Sierra Madre. This location is where you will hibernate for the winter with millions of your kin from around the continent… until you detect the optimum time to begin the migration north.

The migration north in the spring, during which you pollinate many species of wildflowers along the way, just happens to correspond with the emergence of the milkweed plant— the only plant on which you can lay your eggs to ensure the next generation.

Your babies, the ravenously-plump-but-earthbound caterpillar, also has incredible features, but none of them resemble you. That is, not until after it eats and grows and then follows a precise sequence of steps— including almost completely liquifying itself— and being completely rebuilt into a magnificent flying monarch butterfly.

It is all a wonderful exhibition of the Creator's wisdom, beauty, and flawless design!

Hmmm.

Is that thing about not having

sonar still bothering you?

Sorry.

———

When you spot a flitting monarch, do you silently grieve that it cannot sing?

Probably not, right?

When I see a monarch, I am looking at the thing as a whole, and trying just to take in the wondrous way that God has designed it. I note the beauty of it dancing above wildflowers over a sunny prairie. I marvel at its metamorphosis, with its predictable and amazing phases. These are just the details of which I am aware. And I trust that things of which I am not aware are just as wondrous.

This little story is an analogy of what many of us have heard from well-meaning christians, or maybe even what we ourselves have said, about our biblical role as women. We have all these assumed “constraints” due to our gender. Yes, you could call them constraints, just as a monarch's lack of vocalization is a constraint. But then we are told "But hey, women are still pretty important."

This just seems to be so ridiculous, like a child who is heartsick that does not have wings and cannot fly. True, but oh, the amazing abilities of each of God's creations! The design of our Designer is perfect, according to his purposes. Who are we to tell the Potter, "Why have you made me thus?"

As believers, whether male or female, we have God’s revelation and wisdom in his Word to understand his design for our lives. His design for women is perfect, just as for all his creation. In Christ, we have the inestimable gift of forgiveness and eternal salvation and adoption by our heavenly Father, the seal of the Spirit, and much more besides. Wow.

As disciples on this earthly sojourn, christian women also have a specific role which glorifies the Lord. Unlike the monarch butterfly, our obedience to this plan is voluntary. We are not under the control and guidance of DNA and instincts. We require revelation to know God’s plan for us, and our hearts must be fully trusting and submitted to his perfect wisdom for us, no matter the vain janglings of the world.

From page one in the Bible, we see God is revealing to men and women the specifications for their differing roles. Here are some facets of God’s beautiful plan for women...

Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. 1 Peter 3:1

But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 1 Timothy 2:12

To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Titus 2:5

For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: 1 Peter 3:5

Pretty offensive? Not if we recognize the wisdom and purpose of the Lord who loves us. And I am convinced, as we study every word which proceeds from the mouth of God, so much of his will is revealed.

On account of this, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Ephesian 5:17

How will we respond to these plain instructions? The wise thing for us to do is trust that God has a good plan and earnestly seek all of it out with a heart to obey.

Let us always remember... even from the witness of creation all around us... His ways are perfect. And in the history of science, most of man's initial conclusions about God's design in nature has been wrong! Let’s not impose some imagined inferiorities or limitations on God’s design. He is the potter, we are the clay. The whole creation, even in it’s current fallen state, bears witness to his wisdom, from the monarch, to the hummingbird and the yak.

Let’s not be so presumptuous to think that if we don’t understand all the whys, it must not be right. Believers have followed God into an ark, into a lion’s den, into a fiery furnace. Let’s seek to understand, follow and trust God’s Word. Let’s recognize that our obedience to God’s plan in all areas of life— whether the salvation of sinners by faith apart from works, or whether God's good design for women — is foolishness to the world. After all, we are told we should expect God’s ways to confound the (so-called) wise.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. James 1:22-24

Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed. Psalms 119:80

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:31-32