Living Behind the Veil

I'm often asked what I wear in Afghanistan and what it's like to wear a veil. It's freedom. Freedom to have a bad hair day, freedom to arrange my chadar to conceal the curve of my breasts and backside, freedom to not be an expatriate for a little while. It means freedom to hide even on the street from the Afghan men's eyes which seem to strip me naked.
When I relax my shoulders and walk less purposefully, less confidently, my eyes downcast and covered by sunglasses, I pass for an Afghan woman. I hear the men whisper in Dari, "Is she a foreigner or local woman?" I chuckle but am silent. On the street, I'm also a free target....freely exposed to groping, sexual innuendos whispered to me as a man bicycles by, free to have stones thrown at me, freely seen as no one's wife, daughter, sister, mother, friend, or boss. I step inside my gate, and remove my chapan and chadar. Now I'm someone's boss, motherhood returns to me as little steps run to greet me, and I receive a kiss from my adoring husband. Now I'm free to his loving and gentle eyes which know and enjoy my curves, free to once again be under the protective umbrella of being a wife, mother, friend, colleague, boss, niece, sister, daughter, woman.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

The Purity and Passivity of a Female Lamb



He was oppressed, and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.  Is 53:7

Why in this passage, is Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, likened to a “rachel,” the word for female sheep?  Why is he not likened to the “king” of the sheep world, the leader, the dominant one, a ram?  When trying to get a ram to slaughter, they place their front feet in front of them and will not budge.  Two hundred pounds (100 kilos) or more of flesh pulling the opposite direction are not easily led to slaughter.

Jesus, however, is identified as a female sheep. Lambs led to slaughter and sheep who submit to shearing are easy to lead. They do not resist or put up a fight.  Revelations 5:6 and 13:8 teach that he was slain before the foundation of the world, and he is standing by the throne of Yahweh. As the Passover Lamb (1 Cor 5:7), the way to power, glory, and all righteousness is through extreme sacrifice and servanthood.

As a rachel, a little lamb, he is also likened to a totally pure and unblemished sheep. He is pure, more than the total absence of sin, but also pure in heart and mind with single-minded devotion to his Father and his Father’s kingdom values.

How about you? Are you passively submitting to what the Father is asking you to do, even if it means painbearing for your people, just as Jesus bore pain for us?

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