Though I’ve shut myself away to give them privacy, I can still hear the low rumble of voices coming from the living room.
They rise in spirited discussion and debate, fall when a lone speaker makes a point. The voices swell in laughter, pause for prayer.
Tapping away at my computer, I smile. Offer thanks.
March may be Women’s History Month, but Tuesdays are “men’s day” in our apartment here in southwestern Norway. After lunch, my husband logs into a meetings app on his laptop to join his early morning men’s Bible study back in North Carolina. I can hear the shoulder-clapping and the banter from across the sea.
On Tuesday evenings, local men arrive promptly at 6:30, removing their shoes before partaking of coffee and homemade bananbrød. They hail from Ukraine, India, Canada, Norway, America. With family and work responsibilities consuming the daytime hours, they gather after dark to study the scriptures. When their shoes disappear from our entry, we are sorry to see them go.
This particular Tuesday evening, March 19, marks the annual vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere when the sun appears directly over the equator with exactly the same amount of daylight and night across most latitudes on Earth. Twenty-four hours perfectly divided into equal portions of sun and moon. The delicate balance of creation.
Wouldn’t it be a wondrous thing if our human relationships had the same divine balance?
Equal respect given by men to women. By women to men. No more battles of the sexes, gender violence or discrimination. No longer us vs. them but all of us together acknowledging that we need one another.
"So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Genesis 1:27
In the beginning, that was the way.
One sex created to help the other. A human being fully sufficient in self requires no assistance. Yet our Creator recognized our need for companionship, partnership, friendship. Our need for one another.
"A new command I give you: Love one another.As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34
In this month celebrating the history of women, we also sing of the history of men. Our intertwined, mutually dependent lives together.
Men who serve and protect, defend and contend for country and for kin.
Men who lead quiet lives of faithfulness and integrity who don’t make the headlines.
Men who are sinners and saints, poets and kings.
Our fathers, brothers, and sons. Our husbands. Our friends.
If you are a Larry or Jon, a Bill or Mike reading these weekly letter-posts addressed to your sisters and daughters and wives, know that we see you too.
"Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Genesis 2:7
You are a dust-formed, God-breathed, human-loved-into-being.
We need you. We love you. We thank God for you.
And not just on Tuesdays.
- Maggie Wallem Rowe, 2024
PS – I eagerly read and reply to each and every email and comment submitted in response to these weekly letter-posts. Your comments provide the fuel that keep me writing. I especially love it when you talk to each other in the Comments section. Thank you!
Maggie Wallem Rowe is a speaker and dramatist from North Carolina currently doing volunteer ministry in Stavanger, Norway, alongside her pastor-husband of 48 years. They are deeply grateful for the seven sons and daughters who joined their family by birth or marriage or were grafted in by a gracious, loving Father.
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