by Michaela Atencio – originally posted here, this is a reprint with permission. You can find Michaela on their website here.
I’m nonbinary. How does this reconcile with the verse, “male and female he created them,” you may ask?
The variety in God’s creation emphasizes God’s creativity as an artist. Genesis gives us several examples of this.
God made “day and night.” This sounds like a binary, similar to “male and female,” right? But that isn’t quite all we experience in 24 hours. Sunrises and sunsets do not fit into the binary of day or night. Yet God paints the skies with these too.
On the second day God separated the sky from water. Seems like another binary. Yet the clouds hold water for us in the sky, the condensation and rain cycle refreshing our earth constantly. The sky, separate from water, contains and releases water.
God also said “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” That isn’t the full story, either. Consider marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens. Not fully land, not fully waters. There is such glorious variety in God’s creation.
We see another binary in the celestial bodies God made: “the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.” And then, almost as a footnote, “and the stars.” There is more than just sun and moon in outer space. Planets, asteroids, black holes, supernovae.
……
Side note: these magnificent stars hundreds of times more massive than our sun, as simple as that to God.
“and the stars.” I marvel. Hallelujah.
……
“God created the great sea monsters” and “every winged bird of every kind.” A split again between water and sky. Yet we see creatures like penguins that are definitely a “winged bird,” but do not fly and instead walk and swim.
And finally “male and female he created them.” First off, intersex people exist.
But, and perhaps more importantly, friends, look around. Listen. Do you have friends or family that say they don’t fall under “male” or “female?” If so, honor that.
Does all this variety invalidate God as creator? Of course not!
I believe that this instead is an example of how authors weave words to tell a story. We see the author in Genesis give examples of the extremes that God creates. It doesn’t exclude the possibility of more.
And so we worship the God of more. The God of the marsh, the penguin, the God of the sunrise, the cloud, the supernovae. The God of the nonbinary.
You are loved. -m.
Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash
Editor’s Note: Godspace is transitioning from our theme Restoring Rhythms and Seasons to our brand new theme Living As Christ Lived – Towards Justice, Love, and Peace for All Creation. We hope you enjoy the reflections!
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