It is a fact:  We women live in a “MAN’S” world, one filled with so many “MAN-kind” types of things.  To help us understand the significance of the “MAN” we should seek to become, let me pose it as a question—What does God say about “MAN-kind”?

See with me what the Word of God says about the creation of “MAN.”

• We pass by the “milk-MAN” who is carrying the milk from the farm to the plant.
• We grew up playing the video game “Pack-MAN.”
• We are summoned to court to become a “jury-MAN” or “jury-wo-MAN.”
• We need a moment of pampering, so we stop by the local salon for a “MAN-i-cure.”
• We live a great life, one richly full of life’s blessings, only to enter the season of “MEN-o-pause.”
• We hear of a fugitive who is on the run from the police, and we pray the authorities will form a “MAN-hunt” to bring the wayward one to justice.
• We drive our vehicles down the street, weaving left and right, skillfully avoiding those sunken “MAN-holes” that align many city streets.
• We attend high school, anxiously awaiting the day we leave the status of “underclass-MEN” and enter the coveted “upper-class-MEN.”
• We participate in a favored sport, listening to our coach’s admonishing to always react with good “sports-MAN-ship.”
• We graduate from high school, realizing that some of our classmates will enter the “MAN-u-factoring” field as their career.
• We even attend weddings where we see the “best-MAN” standing in the front, next to the groom.
• We buy an appliance and taped to the back is our favorite read—the “owner’s MAN-ual.”
• We shop at a local festival, hoping to find a cute ‘something’ that is uniquely “MAN-made” rather than shopping at the department store filled with numerous “sales-MEN” ready to assist us as we shop.
• We work so hard within our career, hoping to reach the highest status of “chair-MAN” or “chair-wo-MAN.”
• We may even buy a movie ticket to view the newest “super-MAN” movie.
• We attend a performance of the drama “Every-MAN,” realizing that the actors and actresses have spent hours pouring over the “MAN-u-script” to learn their lines.

Yes, we live in a very “MAN-ly” world, one filled with words that date back to the Old English time period.  In looking at the number of English words, I discovered that “MAN” means “hand,” as in to do a task “by hand,” or as we commonly say, “MAN-ually.”  Since we do live within a world full of “MAN-ly” things, I find myself totally amazed that God fashioned “MAN-kind” in such a way that we come to know Him in a most unique, individual way.  In the Bible, we see—

“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone;  I will make him a helper suitable for him. . . .’

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept;  then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.

The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

The man said,

‘This is now bone of my bones,

And flesh of my flesh;

She shall be called Woman,

Because she was taken out of Man. . . .”

“Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

Then the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil;  and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’—therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.”

(Genesis 2: 18 & 21-23 & 3: 20-23)

All girls, all boys, all wo-MEN, and all gentle-MEN need to discover the one kind of “MAN” we should ever desire to be. God tells us exactly what MAN we should seek.

“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;

nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;

and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’”

(Acts 17: 24-28)

“But flee from these things, you man of God, [temptation, love of money, wandering from the faith, & all sorts of evil] and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

Fight the good fight of faith;  take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. . . .

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,

storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”

(1 Timothy 6: 11-12 & 17-19)