Submitting to Authority

     I have a note scribbled in the margin of my notebook that says, "Surely when this was written it was the men who were shocked by it. Women, children and slaves addressed as equals? Husbands, fathers and masters instructed to value them, even love them as Christ loved the church? Absolutely unheard of in the culture of that era."
    Yet in our culture, women are shocked to think they should be under someones authority. We can even deal with the universal command submit to one another much easier than we can think of submission in terms of authority within the family.
    I still love the umbrella illustration best of all. God is the top umbrella, protecting all that is under him. Christ is under God. Why? I certainly don't know. He is in every way equal to God. He actually IS God. Yet he chooses to submit in everything to God, his father. He is our example in all things. He is the person we are most trying to be like. Submission was the way he lived his life. Not to Religion. Not to culture. Not to worldly ideas about how he should run his ministry. Submission to God and his will.
   So when we see our husband's taking their place under the authority of God and Christ, we can see, even if we can't see why, that our place is in submission to those three protectors. It is not in any way an inferior position or an unequal role. But it is the order God has chosen.
    As well as benefiting from their protection, those under the authority of another also have the opportunity to benefit from the vision of their leader. Once again Jesus was the example; everything he did was to accomplish God's purpose with his life. Blessed are we if we have husbands submitting in that same way to Christ's leading in their life. And blessed are they if they can see that Christ-likeness in us.
    We as 21st century women are of course the most fortunate of all who have come before us in the freedom we have and the opportunities open to us. It makes us feel like we should be able to do whatever we want. But who really gets to live that way? Nobody.
    I love hearing many of you talking about being a team with your husbands. Two heads are better than one, (and a cord of three strands, which braids in God, can't be broken!) Yet even the team that works like a charm together surely sometimes runs up against a difference of opinion. Then finally we will have to come to terms with submitting to authority.
   Remember, no Bible Study next week. I've gotten my schedule together and Tuesday I will be baking pumpkin bread and rolled out gingerbread turkey cookies, and of course cleaning floors after that.... Hope you have a blessed holiday, with too much food, just enough family, and the opportunity to reflect on the amazing gift of life God has given us. We have so much more than we need. Thanks be to God.