Celebrating Men

I love men. Immediately I imagine that my statement will be incorrectly interpreted by most. So let me shed some light on the statement. First, I am a woman. Secondly, I'm not making that statment in reference to man just as a sexual being.

Last year the Lord led me to write a book called, "Celebrating Men". (To be released in early September 2010.)The book started out from conversations I had with two of my best friends who encouraged me to put some of the things I was sharing with them into a book. They were both men.

I say I love men because I find them fascinating in the way they think, look and behave. They are so different to my experience as a woman and are God's special creation just as women are. It was to man that God breathed the breath of life, not animals, even though we may act like them sometimes. It was in the image of God that we, man and wo-man were created. The beauty of nature fills me with wonder but even more so does man. Think about it, God put infinite care into the creation of man (general term) and turned around and gave man the authority to name all the other creatures of the earth and gave man dominion over all the earth! Then at the appointed time, God sent his one and only Son to DIE for the sins that we committed! That's priceless! That puts inconceivable value upon mankind even though we don't deserve it. So in my mind, despite all our incredible mess ups, despite the overflowing prisons, the largest oil spill in history, the racism, sexual abuse and massive depravity evident all around us, there is still equivalent good and God said it first, rejoice and repeated it, by saying, "Again I say rejoice!" Why? Because of Jesus who is the hope of glory. Because of Jesus who came to make us new creatures and TRANSFORM our lives! That's why.

Specifically, why do I celebrate men? After my mom's influence and after the Lord transformed my life and my thinking at an early age, I found that it was men who played the greater role in shaping my life today, not women. Now please don't think me completely naive to the wickedness man has done, is doing and is capable of. I don't need to know or discuss all of the wicked schemes of the devil done through men. For though man is culpable for his sin, I sometimes recognize that it is the work of the devil in conjunction with our evil desires that brings about much of what we see and hear on CNN, NBC, ABC and all these other "news" reporting mediums. However, if after being flogged to within inches of death, spat upon and brutally nailed to a cross for crimes He did not commit, the Son of God can say, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," then who am I not to find a way to forgive and obey his later command to rejoice?!

If you let Him, God will be a Father to the fatherless, a friend to the friendless, a husband to the widow and single, the ultimate Comforter, Father and Friend. It is because of Him that I can celebrate men!