March 29, 2013
Standing tall
Spiritual director Janet Davis, on her Women, Wisdom, and the Word blog at the Patheos website, shares her thoughts on the story of Jesus’ healing of the woman who was bent over for 18 years. She had been unable to stand tall until she was touched by Jesus. Davis writes: “Jesus thought a woman’s freedom to stand tall was so important that he broke the law and healed this woman on the Sabbath. I hear in his actions a holy impatience: Not one more day did Jesus want this woman to live bent over.” Davis then shows various ways we women today can still be symbolically “bent over” because we acquiesce to our culture’s gender expectations that often keep us from standing tall. Look over her list of ways we do this. Might we not need some healing, too?
