by Telly G. Ocampo
What I have been doing this Yuletide Season?
(Part 2)
In my January 1, 2023 article, I promised to share with you today, some of the notes I received from a friend named Louella Eslao Alix, as we exchanged notes during the Yuletide Season. This sharing is about our role as women and mothers.
Have you ever noticed how in the scriptures men are always going up into the mountains to commune with the Lord? Yet in the scriptures we hardly ever hear of women going to the mountains. But we know why — right?
Because the women were too busy keeping life going; they couldn’t abandon babies, meals, homes, fires, gardens, and a thousand responsibilities to make the climb into the mountains!
I was talking to a friend the other day, saying that as a modern woman I feel like I’m never “free” enough from my responsibilities, never in a quiet space I want with God.
Her response floored me, “That is why God comes to women. Men have to climb the mountain to meet God, but God comes to women where ever they are.”
I have been pondering on her words for weeks and have searched my scriptures to see that what she said is true. God does, indeed, come to women where they are, when they are doing their ordinary, everyday work.
He meets them at the wells where they draw water for their families, in their homes, in their kitchens, in their gardens.
He comes to them as they sit beside sickbeds, as they give birth, care for the elderly, and perform necessary mourning and burial rites. Even at the empty tomb, Mary was the first to witness Christ’s Resurrection; She was there because she was doing the womanly chore of properly preparing Christ’s body for burial. In these seemingly mundane and ordinary tasks, these women of the scriptures found themselves face to face with divinity.
So if like me, you ever start to bemoan the fact that you don’t have as much time to spend in the mountains with God as you would like, remember, God comes to women. He knows where we are and the burdens we carry. He sees us, and if we open our eyes and our hearts we will see Him, even in the most ordinary places and in the most ordinary things. He lives. And he’s using a time such as this to speak to women around the world. (Original: Heather F.)
So, to the women who are reading this sharing, what do you think of the presence of the Lord in our lives? Aren’t we more special than the others? Aren’t we more privileged than the others? Aren’t we more cared for than the others?
Again, Happy New Year to one and all!