Sexuality: God's Gift
Edited by Anne Krabill Hershberger ’58, associate professor of nursing

Sexuality: God’s Gift, edited by Anne Krabill Hershberger ’58, associate professor of nursing who retired in May, frankly addresses sexuality issues from a Christian point of view. Hershberger, primary author Willard S. Krabill ’49, college physician emeritus, Delores Histand Friesen ’62, former faculty member Lauren Friesen, Professor of Bible, Religion and Philosophy Keith Graber Miller and Michael Carrera write about sexuality, intimacy, marriage and singleness, sensuousness and the arts, among others. The following passage, written by Hershberger, opens the first chapter of Sexuality: God’s Gift.

What is it about a gift that is so appealing? The very fact that someone has given me a gift is a gift in and of itself. Someone thought enough of me to prepare a gift. Surely the presentation is part of the appeal…Ä
Often there is mystery – what could it be? We enthusiastically and literally tear into a package or gently handle the gift so we will not damage any part of it. Then we discover what a person who cares for us thought would bring us pleasure.
True gifts are pleasurable. The gift may be something in line with our interests, with a good fit or a pleasing color. It may be an item, event, resource, or word that is so helpful or delightful, and yet we might never think to buy it or be able to get it for ourselves. It may be a humor-packed something that keeps us laughing every time we think of it. The gift might be a thoughtful gesture that can come only from someone who really knows what we are dealing with in our lives. A gift brings pleasure in so many ways.
So why is our sexuality being named a gift from God? If we compare it with the characteristics of gifts mentioned above, we think about the fact that God chose to make us sexual, both alike as people and different in gender, but each of us as a sexual being. Sexuality has been given to us. It is here, with us, a gift. It is key in making us who we are.
This gift also is inherent in our presentation. From the earliest moments of conception and embryological development, while God was knitting each of us together in the mother’s womb (Ps. 139:13), our sexuality was established, determining our gender.… Each of us was a new person with potential to make a difference in the world in a unique way.
The mystery of our sexuality is present throughout life. Infants touch and explore their own body parts. They thrive only when older human beings touch, cuddle, coo, gaze upon, rock, carry and sing and talk to them.…
As a child enters the school-age years, many developmental tasks require attention, but permeating everything else is the mystery of sexuality: “Why am I like I am?” “Where did I come from?” “Am I normal?” “What is right for me to be doing as a girl or a boy?” This interest in and exploration of the mystery of sexuality is right there all of the time.
When people enter puberty, they “tear into the package” or, in fear and trembling, respond to the bombardment of sexual thoughts, images and feelings coming from within and without. For many people, trying to understand the mystery of sexuality at this time of life almost becomes a preoccupation.
As we move into adulthood and throughout our middle and older years, we have the potential to gain greater insights into the mystery and to experience the mature richness of our sexuality. We realize that sexuality refers to all those parts of the human personality and body that collectively identify us as male or female. Always, from birth to death, we are all sexual beings.
The gift of sexuality, like other gifts, is meant to be a source of pleasure in our lives. This pleasure is expressed poetically by Solomon’s Song of Songs in the Bible: “How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice!” (4:10b). The marriage at Cana was a cause for celebration as well as the occasion for Jesus’ first recorded miracle, turning water into wine (John 2:1-11). Throughout, the Bible gives a clear message that love should permeate relationships of all kinds and bring the greatest of pleasures.…
As Christian adults, we believe in a God who has created the world, orderly and predictable, and we are a part of that creation. It is predictable that if we transgress God’s design for our lives, we will have to pay a price. Our right decisions about our sexuality today can bless our future days tremendously. Our wrong decisions about our uses of and purposes in sex today can blight our tomorrows in many ways.

Excerpted from Sexuality: God’s Gift, 1999, edited by Anne Krabill Hershberger, Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa. Available at the campus bookstore, Provident Bookstore and amazon.com.

Return to September Bulletin contents
About this Issue – A Goshen College book club?
In Praise of Faculty
Salsa: A Taste of Hispanic Culture
Coffee Break
Night's Black Weight
Berman's Lament
Anansi Borrows Money
Roll It: GC Alums strike success in soap box racing and celluloid

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