From Eden to Eternity - Part 3
- May 10
- 6 min read
God's desire and design for women throughout scripture
*This is Part 3 of a three-part series for Mother's Day. Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2 first.
Eternal Restoration:
Revelation 21: Jesus making all things new
Today, we don’t have Jesus in flesh and blood walking among us. But we do have His Holy Spirit.
And as we live our lives as God’s image in the world, the Holy Spirit helps us and convicts us and guides us to become more like Jesus—God Himself, and the perfect image of God.
Galatians 5 says:
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery ... You, my brothers & sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve on another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus ... The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love ... But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
The fruit of the Holy Spirit looks a lot like the character qualities Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount. And I’d challenge us to think about our relationship with God, our relationship with ourself, and our relationship with others.
From our heart to our behavior, understanding our roles as God’s image bearers affects everything we do and our mindset toward the women in our lives.
For the vast majority of history society has had a very low view of women.
They are frequently belittled and abused and looked down upon.
They aren’t given places of honor.
Their gifts and their voices are not valued.
They are mistreated.
They are plundered.
They are taken advantage of.
And so one challenge for Christian women today is to consider how we are viewing ourselves and others:
Do we have a low view of ourselves?
Do we believe that we are made in the image of God?
From reading through scripture do we really think that God and Jesus have a low view of women?
Do we believe we were purposefully created, that we are being actively redeemed, and that we will be eternally restored?
Do we believe He intends for us to grow and learn, that He values our voice, that He values our gifts, that He gives good gifts to the women He creates?
If not, my question would be why? Why have we bought into the lie that women matter less, or only matter for the role they play in others’ lives?
I know it’s hard to fight culture and to fight what society tells us—even what church and denominational cultures have tried to tell us—but what we see in scripture is a God who values, loves, supports, and lifts up women time and time and time again.
The very fact that Jesus’ lineage is full of faithful women called and gifted and lifted up, shows us how much God values women from the story of creation all the way to eternal life with Him.
Women are valuable image bearers of God, just like men. We need to see ourselves that way. And men, you need to see the women in your lives that way. Your coworkers, your daughters, your wives, your sisters, your mothers. And if we really believed that about one another, if we really valued and lifted one another up that way, how would it change our life? How would it change the way we relate to one another? How would it change our integrity toward one another if we valued each other the way God values us?
One day, when Jesus returns, the whole earth will move into a time of perfect eternal restoration. Where our relationships with God and others are restored to God‘s ideal He began in the garden. Men and women living, working and worshipping together alongside God in beautiful mutuality once again.
And we have the picture of God’s creation, the words of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, to begin walking in that beauty right now.
So What?:
The humanity of it all
So what? What does this mean for our everyday lives?
We cannot truly value women as mothers, daughters, co-workers, or anything else if we don’t value them as made in the image of God first.
To have a full appreciation of women as anything, we need to have a full appreciation of women as image bearers, grounded in the truth of Scripture.
Motherhood is amazing. It is a high and hard calling. But motherhood is not the be-all end-all of our callings as women. It is not the only place our value lies.
And how do we know this? From the garden story where we see the creation of humanity, the creation of Adam and Eve. Women were created to complete humanity with men, and God called them in that completeness very good. We were called “good” and complete and whole by God before motherhood ever entered the picture.
The bible places inherent value and worth within women, with or without the title of mother, because they are His very own image. Not because of any role they may hold or what they do externally.
Throughout scripture we see women from every walk of life carry all kinds of titles, which shows us that, while mother is an extremely beautiful title for women to hold, it is not what gives us our worth.
The more important aspect of motherhood, or any other role women might hold during their life, is as an image bearer of God.
Whether serving with your church’s food pantry, being a spiritual mentor to others, teaching and leading, or diligently working in your career … the most important thing any of us will ever be is not mother or father, it is creation of God and follower of Jesus Christ.
But if our identity is not rooted in that truth, we will find ourselves getting stuck.
When we ultimately struggle or fail or go through trials like infertility, loss, a difficult diagnosis, a wayward child, a difficult marriage … we have to be rooted in our identity as created by God first, or we will get stuck.
Three years ago, I miscarried a little girl at 14 weeks pregnant, and I got stuck. It shattered me. And not just in the way grief does, but in a deeper, identity-shaking way.
For two years, I was stuck because my identity had been wrapped up in so many other things—family, what I thought I knew about God, being a mom, leaving my career to stay home, only to then miscarry.
I really truly struggled, and it took me a long time to realize why I was so broken. It was because I was not firmly rooted in being made in the image of God as my core identity.
Marriage is hard, singleness is hard, parenting is hard, infertility is hard … LIFE is hard. And I want everyone, but especially women to hear today that you were purposefully created by a God who loves you and made you in His image.
We are not called to do it alone. We are called to lift each other up, work and cultivate together, live life together, and with God, out of our true identities as image bearers.
You are loved and inherently worthwhile because the God of the entire universe chose to create you in His image. Not for what you do, not for how much you produce, not for any reason other than He created you from the overflow of His unending love.
Prayer
God we are so grateful for Your word and how You cherish women. Not for what they do, but for who they are and how You made them—as Your image bearers. I thank You for the gift of motherhood in whatever form that may take—mom, grandma, doting aunt, spiritual mentor, caretaker, adoptive or foster mother—I thank You for the gift that women are, and for the gift of Jesus, who valued women so highly. I pray for all the women reading this today, that they would know their worth lies in You, not in what they do or the title they hold. We love You and praise You today, amen.
—Whitney
*This post is adapted from a 2025 Mother's Day sermon I preached at Restore Church in Brookland, Ar
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