Not only is this Pi Day (Greek for the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter—see what you learn on this site?!), but it has been dubbed Pie Day throughout the U.S. and to acknowledge the date, a mixed fruit pie—with homemade crust!—is bubbling in the oven. In case pi and pie aren’t enough for festivities, we remember that in 1918 the first concrete ship was launched in San Francisco and in 1888 New York recorded its second largest snowfall—twenty-one inches. This latter event doesn’t elicit applause this afternoon as we’re having one of our own typical “spring” semi-blizzards. Wind is whipping snow into great piles and small birds are finding our window feeder a welcome refuge.

In our family circle, March 14 is cause for celebration because it’s our daughter’s birthday. A few years have passed since her birth in Des Plaines, Illinois, but through them all she has brought joy and talent and beauty to the world.

Throughout the month of March, however, my attention if also drawn to the hurts and joys and challenges, the losses and wins, the occasionally celebrated but often neglected, lives of women. For many years March has been designated International Women’s Month with March 8^th International Women’s Day. It is women like our daughter—especially single women—who capture my heart in an era where so much distracts us from honoring God’s special creation of woman.  

Too often encased in restrictive roles by some in the Church, today Christian women are making their God-anointed voices heard as they “rightly divide the word of truth,” challenge leaders (usually male but not always) who would deny them their calling, and respond with strength to social ills throughout the world. Along with men, they teach our children, sit in the boardroom and protect us on the street. They bake bread and round up horses. They win gold in the Olympics and Swati Mohan announced the successful landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. 

I want to write more on this subject, but what applies to speaking—“the mind can only absorb what the seat can endure”—has its less succinct twin in reading: “Believe in brevity.” Before the special month of March is over, I will highlight women—from the past and present—who have imprinted this world with their special gifts. For now—if you are a woman, rejoice that God has loved and gifted you for a purpose. If you are a man, describe to a woman her specific influence on you and on the world.