Tonight, after a decent effort this afternoon and evening at work, I came home with little energy, but enough to load a DVD into the DVD player, and I am glad I finally did.

Tonight’s film, received from Netflix nearly two months ago, has inexplicably sat beckoning to viewed, and for whatever reason, I ignore it that long.

Until this evening.

And I suspect I needed a quie, focused evening to appreciate it like I did.

I understand now why “Wonder Woman” was so broadly heralded last year.

The script and story are well-assembled, and the movie has no demerits as an action, super hero film. The plot moves along deftly, enhanced by colorful backdrops crafted from history and fantasy. Myths mingle with facts to carry the film forward, and the two merge nicely to create a compelling storyline. But most wonderful is the development of our heroine.

Diana, or Wonder Woman as we know her, is intelligent, strong and fearless throughout the film, first as a wild child in the safe haven of the isle of the Amazons, and later as a naive and innocent warrior entered into the fallen world of men, where she learns not only that humanity is comprised of a sea of compromised people, but that her brother, Aries, son of Zeus, is first disguised as a mild-mannered ally, and then comes out as his true identity- the god of war, he would destroy her.

Diana is human in this film, pierced by love and by loss. But she is not ground under by the machinations of mankind, or more specifically, men.

This is a departure from most feminine super hero narratives. Diana is not a soft, sensual, sexualized savior, as typified by the Linda Carter version of this hero. This Diana is compassionate and focused and sensitive and goal-driven, but she is also independent, smart, confident, tough, and fierce in her resolve to do good and to fulfill her duties to help the downtrodden among man.

Diana is a strong woman.

I am grateful the film gave her the strength she deserves to convey. In a world where corruption is expected from every quarter, and where men by and large draft the station occupied by women simply because men hold more power and largely command opinion in this world, Diana was not crafted with compromise to please the machismo among us. She is truly heroic as a figure in this film.

And if women are encouraged to be stronger, and to challenge the subtle misogyny that can hide in conventional corners of society because of such an icon, may they be empowered by such a super hero.

Theologically, I am a Christian, and one fundamental views of our faith is that the world is fallen. Human beings are each and all stained with the blemish of Adam’s sin, and the world itself is shaded by a stain of destruction, which God the Father had to remedy through His Son. Where the doctrinal problem and solution are rejected, power remains the primary pursuit of the broken soul, and men have had a long dark history of meting out abuses on those less strong than them. Women have long felt the brunt of the abuses doled out by broken men. And there remains to this day aspects of modern civilization that still try to demean or minimize the value and potential of a woman based on her gender. Aspects I am sure I have supported in my lazy sensibilities from time to time.

Jesus loved women- and not for what they looked like, or for what they could for him, or for other less honorable reasons some would like to ascribe to him. He understood their hard place in a largely patriarchal world. He valued their compassion and devotion, and he let a number of important moments from his life story be written with them.

It would make sense, because he is the Father’s Son, and God is love, and God loves his creations, each on their own terms, because he made them- for good, to know good, and to do good.

I am not one who thinks that making women stronger means that men have to be weaker. There is a form of feminism that calls all of the ills brought on between the sexes as a product of patriarchal imposition. I tend to just see the world, which includes both men and women, as fallen. Isaiah the Prophet said it was always an individual, personal issue (my emphasis added): “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Our sexes make us naturally different, but they should have no impact on how we value and respect and build up and treat each other.

He originally designed the world for his creatures to know love and empowerment. That was the original picture he had for people.

Men and women alike.

Boys and girls alike.

Human beings.

So, Diana, keep being strong and moral and heroic.

DC made a female hero I know I can fully celebrate- for being a strong, powerful, good woman.

I think that is how He intended his girls to be.

Here’s to Wonder Women.