The Barren Woman Bible

A friend shared this link on Facebook today and I thought it was worth sharing. It's an article called "The Barren Woman Bible," written by one of my former seminary professors. She says, amid other things,

In real life, barrenness is much more complicated. It's infertility and miscarriages. It's bleeding and not-bleeding—but on the opposite schedule than you want. It's counting days, doctor visits, taking blood, running tests, more doctor's visits and a slew of bills and—if you're lucky enough—insurance forms. And did I mention what it does to sex?! What was once fun and adventurous can become calculated, programmed or halted.

And then there's the ending. In real life, God's "fix" is not always a boy-prophet. Sometimes it's adoption. Sometimes it's a birthed child. Sometimes it's nieces and nephews. Sometimes it's finding peace with childlessness.

At least that's how it is for me and the other women who I talk with.

At one point over the last three years, I started bookmarking article after article about barren, infertile, and otherwise non-pregnant women in the Bible, considering writing something for publication about this sort of topic. Maybe it is time to revisit that idea...