My husband Luke and I are best friends. We love like it. We fight like it. We laugh like it. We cry like it. We make love like it. We travel like it. We watch Netflix like it. We “baby” our dog like it. We do church together like it. We decorate our home together like it. We work together like it. Things have been far from perfect, but I can say, with all honesty, that he is my world and I am his.
Yet, I am not made in my husband’s image.
Luke is as the sand on a beach and I am as the ocean. He is consistent and I often change my mind. He is calm and I am charged. He is slow to act and I am quick to act. He is steady and I am passionate. He is wise and thrives in management. I am a risk-taker and thrive in leadership. Together, we make the perfect team.
Yet, I am not made in my husband’s image.
I know exactly who I am apart from Luke. I don’t need him to follow my calling or live my best life. I believe that if we are truly striving to live our best life, we should follow our callings from God. I have been doing that since I was thirteen years old and marriage was not part of the equation then.
My calling is not marriage. Marriage is perhaps the greatest blessing God has ever bestowed on me, and I would be devastated if I ever lost Luke.
Yet, I am not made in my husband’s image.
Who am I as a woman of God? I am God’s beloved child. I don’t need a man to complete me. My foundation is Jesus Christ. He is my love. He is my politics. He is my purpose. My calling is found in Jesus Christ alone.
As men and women, we cannot know our true life purpose apart from Jesus Christ. Sure, we can know our gifts. But, if God is our maker, and Jesus says that there is no way to the Father apart from him (John 14:6), then we must go through Jesus to ask what we were made for. My husband can help me discover my identity in Christ and point me towards the cross.
Yet, I am not made in my husband’s image.
In the beginning of time, God said that I, as a woman, was made in his image, in the image of the Trinity. The Trinity is not male; it is genderless. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit existed in the Garden of Eden as one deity. At that time, they were simply the “I Am.” God had not yet revealed himself as father and Jesus had not yet revealed himself as son. Certainly there is significance to these revelations, but may we not lose sight of the fact that “I Am” created females in his (or her) own image.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them (Gen. 1:26-27 NRSV).
Eve was taken out of Adam’s side.
Yet, I am not made in my husband’s image.
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken (Gen. 2:21-23).”
Eve came out of Adam and therefore resembled him. Likewise, Jesus Christ most certainly resembled his mother, Mary. He came out of her and carried her blood and DNA. However, Eve was not made in the image of Adam any more than Jesus was made in the image of Mary. Eve was made in God’s image—the source of all life.
I may resemble my husband with two hands, two feet, a mind, a spirit, and a heart.
Yet, I am not made in my husband’s image.
I am complete in Jesus Christ. I do not need my husband or any human to complete me. I am spiritually alive and well with or without a man.
The priesthood is for all believers according to the Holy Scriptures (1 Peter 2:5). Jesus Christ is the head of every power and authority that exists. I do not need my husband to offer me some sort of “covering” or “spiritual authority” to follow my calling, preach the good news, and take authority over darkness.
I appreciate having my husband by my side as we pursue Jesus Christ together.
Yet, I am not made in my husband’s image.
