Woman, the Eve and Enricher

Enrich (verb) – To improve or enhance the quality of; to make richer, especially by the addition or increase of some desirable quality, attribute, or ingredient.

One of the things God does once we submit ourselves to His will is begin enriching our lives. By nature, God proceeds to enhance and improve any area of our lives that we surrender and invite Him into (whether that’s our career, our relationships, our self-image, etc.)

Referring to woman as “Eve” may be pretty self-explanatory, but what does it mean to label her the “enricher?” Pulling from our descriptions above, this label implies that women, like our heavenly Father, also have the capacity to improve and enhance the quality of what is around us, wherever we are placed. How exactly do we, as women, do this? Through the characteristics that God has naturally embedded in us, many of which are typically associated with femininity. To find more answers, let’s look at a handful of specific traits our God has that He also chose to impart unto us. The first set of them that we’ll examine are gentleness, kindheartedness, and a high level of empathy towards others.

Woman is a reflection of God’s deep compassion and empathy.

As mighty and strong as God is, He displays an unmatched compassion and empathy towards humanity. Jesus is by far the greatest embodiment of this. As Christ, God came down from Heaven, and subjected Himself to the exact same conditions we live in (the weakness of our human flesh and living here on Earth). He did this as a display of His unhindered understanding of us as His children and of the plight we face as human beings living here in the flesh.

From the last post, “Man, The Image Bearer” we saw that man is a reflection of God’s superior strength and power. Conversely, woman is a reflection of this compassionate, empathetic side of our Lord. We see this in how women often go out of our way to be especially understanding and kind in tough situations, and in how most women naturally find themselves bending in order to accommodate those around us. This is a trait God specifically embedded into us as women, as an earthly representation of His own compassionate and empathetic character.

Woman represents God’s creative nature and desire to “beautify” His surroundings.

Have you ever caught an uninterrupted look at a sunset, the ocean, or even a small flower outside? If so, it’s easy to that our God is quite the artist. One of the clearest canvases of His artistic, creative nature is exactly that: nature. Let’s think about the range of beings God created during Genesis 1 for a second. He could’ve easily made humans, some water, just a few animals for food, and then kept it pushing —what more was really needed? For some reason, though, our God had this innate drive to create the diverse range of people, animals, and landscapes that we see around us today. As effective as His basic creation (life), already was, God still desired to embellish it with as many extra touches and fine details as possible.

This… might sound familiar. It’s a tendency that women have, as well — ask any man who’s ever had to share a living space with one! One of the best Biblical scenes illustrating this creative nature of woman can even be found in Thee Proverbs 31 (verses 19, 22, and 24). This is, truly, one of the ways we see that woman enhances her surroundings: by finding ways to give them more depth, and beauty.

Woman holds the God-granted power to multiply anything that is given to her.

When we give God a mustard seed of faith, He uses it to move mountains in our lives. When we give Him our contrite, lowly, broken hearts, He gifts us a new and improved, sensitive heart (as He promised in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”). When we give Him our commitment, He returns to us far more than we could ever imagine: His entire Kingdom, along with all of our needs (Matthew 6:33). Any time we give God one thing, He intakes it, and then multiplies it so that it yields an unbelievably great return.

When God created woman, He imparted this same gifting to us. This blessing is the reason, in fact, women are able to take a man’s seed and return an entire living, breathing human being from it, increasing both her and the man’s bloodline/descendants. It’s why mothers are adeptly able to take a few raw ingredients, and turn them into a nutritious meal, or even clothing, for their families. It’s why when you give a woman a house, she is somehow able to take it and turn into a home. It is in our God-designed nature, even physically speaking, to multiply what is given to us.

Similarly, and lastly…

Woman was gifted the capability to nurture and amplify what is already there, just as God does for us.

The Lord will often take our hobbies, unrefined skills, and even day-job responsibilities and use those very same aptitudes to promote us into His will for us. We see Biblical examples of this with Moses and his staff, which God transformed into an instrument for Moses to lead the entire nation of Israel with. We also see it with David, who started off fighting bears and lions just as a shepherd protecting his sheep, and then having God use that in order to help him defeat Goliath. When we submit ourselves to the Lord, He gladly looks at things we were already practicing and makes us even better at them, in a way that allows us to build His Kingdom.

Women are masters at doing this as well! Woman is not only gifted at multiplying and “giving birth” to new things — she also has this special skill of nurturing what is there into increase, even with intangible things such as character traits, talents, and skills. A woman, through her continued support and encouragement, can inspire a man to start a career, businesses, and ministries using the skills and talents he’s always had but perhaps never thought much of. This is why you often hear famous men proclaim that behind every successful man is a good woman whose love and support helped propel him forward.

Considering all of these traits, we can see many ways in which women were chosen to represent the beautiful, complex, and creative nature of God.

For what purpose did our Lord fashion women the way He did? To nurture and enrich all that He has placed around us; to give birth to new, beautiful ideas and human beings. To handle the “And multiply” part of the charge God gave to mankind in Genesis 1:28!

We should cherish and embrace the feminine traits that our Creator lovingly wove into us, no matter how we may be discouraged from doing so. We should seek not to ignore or resent our nature as women, but rather, to use our womanly characteristics for the Lord’s glory — for they are a true testament to how we have purposefully been created in His image.