Shabbat shalom and Happy Pride!
In our creation story in Genesis, we read, “male and female God created them.” How do we reconcile this with those who are transgender, nonbinary, genderfluid, agender, or anyone else who does not fit neatly into the category of male and female?
Michaela Nicole posted the following thread on twitter on June 1, 2021 and elaborates on how the creation in Genesis might seem full of binaries, but there is actually more to the story.
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?
This 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 the water, contains and releases water.
God also said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together in 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. These magnificent stars are hundreds of times more massive than our own 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 noy fly and instead walk and swim.
And finally, “male and female he created them.” First off, intersex people exist. But, and perhaps more importantly, look around. Listen. Do you have friends or family who say they don’t fall under male or female? If so, honor that.
Does all this variety invalidate God as a creator? Of course not! I believe 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 supernova. The God of the nonbinary. You are loved.
God is the God of the in-between-ness. We know that when we read these binaries in the story, we read it not just as only those two points but encompassing everything between those two extremes and more. As we get ready to pray together on Shabbat, the seventh day of creation, let’s not forget to marvel in all of the beauty and spectrum in God’s creation today.
Shabbat Shalom!
