As my self-perception and understanding of what it means to be woman was being healed and transformed, so also was my perception of God. Early in sabbatical I had the sense that God wanted to reintroduce God’s self to me. Since so much of my understanding of God was shaped by masculine influence, my understanding was limited. And the distance I felt from God was caused in part by this misunderstanding. If God is perceived as male and men are often overpowering and all-pervasive, then there’s no room for me as a woman in relationship to God or men. But here was this revelation of God in Jesus who, as a man, doesn’t overpower, overshadow or impose himself. Though Jesus could fill the space of the world and is certainly self-sufficient, he restrains himself with remarkable discipline and control to make room for the other—all others, all of his creation. And he doesn’t stop there. Making room for the other, he invites us into a relationship of mutuality—giving and also receiving. Incredible. If the God of the universe can make room for me and receive what I have to offer, then certainly humanity can too—most notably, men. In Jesus we see the portrait of what it means to be the best of masculine humanity—powerful but free of ego, dominant but tempered, strong by yielding to others. He has nothing to prove and everything to give. He is a respected of persons—he affirms that masculine and feminine are both divine reflections. In relationship to him there is enough space for all of us to live in mutuality, offering our gifts and influence to one another. Some feminists have a really hard time accepting that in the life of Christ God chose to revealed as a man and not a woman. But when seen in this light, God’s incarnation as man becomes an incredible grace to men and women alike.

Phileena Heuertz, ‘Pilgrimage of a Soul,’ page 143-144. (via ifiblogged)