In God’s master plan of creation, women took the last position. The lastborns’ position in any family is for a fundamental and significant purpose. Take for instance in human nature, every last child in a home attracts love as such a child is feted and cared for by every member of the family. The best food is reserved for the child and he/she must have food to eat even when there is none in the house. Such a child enjoys a great deal of the parents’ love even to the envy of other children. This experience is very familiar to me because incidentally I too share in the last born’s Paradise as I belong to the sect.
God, who is all knowing decided to create the woman last. This is because he wanted to show the world that he is a lover of beauty. His interest in beauty was not fully manifested when he created trees, birds, flowers and even man the supposed crowning glory of God’s creation. He revealed more of the beauties he possesses in the person of the woman who is an offshoot of the man made by God. This is evident in the woman’s beautiful and elegant curves, her bright round shiny eyes, her sonorous voice like that of the birds, the long hairs, her beautiful and intoxicating smile that is capable of disarming a notorious thief. Her soft and tender heart and all those marvelous tendencies very easily recognizable in a woman. The woman indeed is the crowning glory of God’s creative energy! Moreover, I cannot fail to mention that a woman ab-initio is endowed with great wisdom and understanding. Her strength is greater than that of Samson of the Old Testament. If you doubt me ask Samson himself or if I lie that means I am still a virgin in spite of my five children.
God, I must confess spent quality time in moulding the creature called woman. This is because He wanted to make a beauty statement that He is beauty himself. Is God really a “He” or a “she”? Well, let’s take Him to be a “He” He was not in a hurry to deliver the woman into the world, and that was why he threw Adam into a deep sleep which must have lasted for very long hours or even days who knows? This necessarily accounts for the first statement Adam made, on waking up from the deep slumber: This is good” According to Adam, though he just woke up from a deep slumber, with weary and sleepy eyes still recognized that Eve was good and much better than himself. Do I blame Adam or what manner of man will see such curves and pleasant looks without making a public confession of “I love her’
The Almighty desired to release a perfect piece of his creation work and the woman found favour in this great plan. No wonder at birth the girl child is not in a hurry to come out from the womb because she is busy, as the old traditional belief will have it, gathering her lip sticks, powder and other beauty components in consonance with God’s master plan of looking beautiful. And she indeed qualifies as beautiful. Oh God, thank you for making me a woman!
At birth the girl child radiates love and beauty with her curly hair, bright eyes and small nose, elegant lips and tiny hands that will grow into full strength. If you get into the market to shop for a girl child you will be ushered into a world of beautiful dresses, shoes, hats, toys and other lovely items too numerous to mention. Often times you get confused at which ones to pick. This is unlike the infant male items that are characterized with masculine rigid and regimentary qualities. As a mother I too get frustrated most times when I want to shop for my boys because there are less beauties in their market and less items to choose from. While in the womb she did her things elegantly. She is not in a hurry to greet the world. She takes time to gather enough momentum with which to take off into the world. She makes sure that there is no cob-web on her path, with her inner strength she launched into the world and when she appears she appears like a goddess endowed with great energy to pull through the challenges of the world, easily conquering the immediate troubles of existence such as jaundice and malaria. She comes endowed with a strong character. All through her adolescent period, she radiates a kind of beauty and love which are irresistible to men. Oh yes! You must turn at the sight of her because she carries an inner strength, beauty and confidence which God has deposited in her. She is like a tree planted by the river’s side, her branches are love, beauty, passion, understanding, wisdom, courage, strength, elegance and those branches gather the breeze that sustains both men and the entire human world. Woe to that community that has no women and more woes to that community that has no reasonable women.
No wonder many countries of the world respect these human species a whole lot. In Arab countries for instance, the men will give everything to protect their women from the preying eyes of strangers and enemies. They prefer to do all the hardwork and all such jobs that may expose their women to seductive eyes. They are ready to kill who dares to assault the women of their tribe and that is the reason you can hardly see their women in public functions and places. Suffice it to say that their women are their idols and the “shes” whom they protect and obey.
Let us at this point consider some of the salient but wonderful virtues which women possess. In the first instance, they are the binding cord between father and children. They are the bridge through which fathers and their children relate, they are strong cords that tie the family together. Their ever flowing milk of kindness is never dry. Once a woman is around, the home front is lively but if she is missing the home front will attest that a vital piece is missing. Her breast is a succor to the husband, her pot of soup and stew are delights of her household. No wonder the Bible said in the book of Proverbs that her price is far above rubies. She makes her husband prominent when he sits at the city gate with the elders (Prov. 31:10).
But when the centre of the home can no longer hold waters, check very well, there are three things involved the woman of the home is missing in the crowd; she is just putting on another body which is not a true representation of womanhood, or she is the daughter of Jezebel and not God’s child. But if she is a woman, bearing the true nature of womanhood she has a mature way of using her God-given virtues to calm the stormy weather.
Secondly, she is a pillar of strength to the world. Ordinarily as I have cited in an earlier piece, 1 Peter 3:7 sees women as weaker sex or vessels but I tend to disagree with Apostle Peter and not with God. I will rather say that women are “stronger and fairer vessels”. A woman is a human specie that carries so much strength in her. Even while in the womb she exhibits this strength by surviving where their twin male counterparts cannot survive. When there is prolonged labour the male child runs the risk of being endangered. This is quiet unlike the female child.
A woman’s strength is also manifested during pregnancy. She endures all the stress of the pregnancy for a period of nine months. At the labour room the story is a different ball-game. She patiently but painfully crosses seven seas and seven mountains to deliver her baby and when the baby emerges she releases a kind of smile that is rather too heavenly and angelic considering the trauma she has just passed through. At the death of her husband, she is not in a hurry to re-marry. One child is enough to keep her in her husband’s household for the rest of her life. She wades through thick and thin to put food on the table for the children. She is seen at building sites doing “kim-bom jobs”. She climbs a lorry load of food stuffs and sleeps by the road sides when there is no vehicle to transport her goods all in the bid to provide comfort for her children and household.
The story is however not the same with the man whose wife dies, for the widower counterpart can barely wait for the mourning period to be over before he jumps on top of another woman’s laps. When confronted, he will tell you that he indulges in such games so as to take away his pains. Is he really the only one feeling the pains of a departed loved one?
Oh! What a world! Some times I wonder if it is the same God that really created man and woman. Why do they treat the woman with so much callousness, or is God partial with his distribution of will-power? Why will he give women so much and men less, especially in an issue like this? A woman is always a better lover, and the whole world attests to this universal truth. Women indeed sustain society.
In conclusion, I will want to say that if you belong to our group, club or call it whatever; if you are a woman and you do not generate goodness around you, if you do not express selfless sacrifice and all those wonderful virtues associated with our sect, think twice and know if the identity you bear is truly that of a woman. If you are not one you may need a change of identity so you can change for good and fit into God’s ordained character (E jiri mara anyi). Where really do you belong?
(This piece had earlier been published some months back, but by popular demand is reproduced here as a tribute to our women folk, the beauties of God’s creative effort and sustain the arguments of the sexes).
