BEING HUMAN

Day 23, 23 December 2024, the 1034th day of the full-scale war.

This war has affected women in many ways at once, deepening vulnerabilities that already existed and creating new forms of suffering. Millions have been forced into refuge abroad or displacement inside the country, often carrying sole responsibility for the survival of children and elderly relatives. They bear the brunt of the economic fallout as well, since their husbands and sons are serving at the front, or have fallen, or are in captivity, or are missing. They carry psychological trauma, what we have come to call the broken windows of the soul. And about 67,000 of them serve in the Ukrainian army. Looking at what Ukrainian women have been living through, I ask myself how we, as followers of Christ, can make His protective presence visible in their lives.

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4–5, NKJV).

In the joy of this season, as we celebrate the birth of the child, it is easy to forget the vulnerability that surrounded His coming. Jesus entered the world through an unmarried mother in a land under occupation, amid social disgrace and systemic oppression. His birth was also surrounded by women whom God chose and honored, women whose lives looked marginal, and He consistently used their vulnerability as a sacred pathway for an extraordinary purpose.

Elizabeth carried the disgrace of barrenness. Mary bore the stigma of an unplanned pregnancy. Anna lived in the invisibility of widowhood. Each of their lives was interrupted by God, who turned their shame into a calling. I have no doubt that Jesus knew the controversial circumstances of His own birth, and I think it shaped His attitude toward women throughout His ministry, inside that particular social framework.

His first miracle at Cana came at His mother’s prompting. His parables take up women’s perspectives, as with the woman searching for a lost coin, or the persistent widow demanding justice. He let the woman with the flow of blood touch Him, though it rendered Him ritually unclean. He crossed a religious boundary to speak with the Samaritan woman at the well, offering her living water for her deepest shame. He undermined patriarchal structures by letting women sit at His feet and learn, a privilege normally reserved for male disciples. From the cross He made provision for His mother, entrusting her to the disciple He loved and entrusting that disciple to her (John 19:26–27). And in the moment of resurrection He appeared first to women, commissioning them as the first witnesses of the Gospel and sending them to tell the others.

In each of these moments we see God among us drawing near to women in spaces of vulnerability and violation. That is the hope of Advent for Ukrainian women today, and for countless women in other armed conflicts. In how He treated women, Jesus proposes a redemptive path for men as well: a profound recognition of inherent worth rather than a patronizing charity. We are challenged to see the scandalous places of our world as the very spaces where God is present, to amplify the voices of women silenced by trauma, and to confront the theologies and cultural norms that justify the violation of a woman’s body. In doing so, we welcome the God who enters vulnerability in order to bring new life.

As we celebrate the birth of Christ this season, may we remember the women through whom our redemption came, women like Mary and Elizabeth and Anna, whose stories of shame and vulnerability were transformed into our salvation, through that vulnerability rather than despite it. And may the stories of the women around Jesus press us to recognize that in upholding their dignity we welcome Emmanuel.

Prince of Peace, in this Advent season open our hearts to the strength of women suffering in this war. Like Mary and Elizabeth and Anna, may Ukrainian women find their dignity in You amid the struggle. Reveal Your presence in their pain, and turn their vulnerability into a strength that endures. Hear our prayer for the women who wait, for those who survive, and for those who hope. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord of women oppressed by war. Amen.