Let the Women be Saved in Childbearing

Today's post is borrowed from my dissertation diary blog.


“. . . and women are to be saved in childbearing.” That was part of the answer P@ige P@tterson gave me when I asked him if there would be a place for me to serve post seminary graduation. His answer was no, “ . . . if you are speaking of pastoral ministry.” “But why Dr. P@tterson,” I asked? He said, “Because women were last to be created, first to fall, and saved in childbearing.”

I had heard rumors of a similar statement he had made at the Baptist seminary in Missouri. But I never really believed it until I was the recipient of his words.

Saved in childbearing. It seems so ironic considering that every minute of every day a woman dies as a result of pregnancy. It seems so ironic considering that statistically speaking I will never have a child. And mostly, it seems so ironic considering that P@ige P@tterson was right. The subject of childbearing is saving me . . . it is what wakes me in the morning and rocks me to sleep at night.

Saved in childbearing, saved in childbearing, saved in childbearing. May the women of Burma and Bangladesh, Jacksonville, and Jakarta be saved in childbearing.
S

The painting, Melon Belly, is the creation of Sarah Ayoub Agha whose work is featured in a current UN exhibit, "The Reflective Mirror".