Companionship

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

                                                                                                                           ~ Genesis 2:18

God created man from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living being.  Man is nothing but dirt, apart from the life-giving God.  Without God, we have no real life.  Humans are made in God’s image and meant to be filled with the knowledge of He who blesses and calls us to tend His earth.

            Yet companionship with God alone, apparently was not all that man needed.  God saw that is wasn’t good for man to be alone.  He made for him a helpmate from his own body.  My father used to joke that when God took a rib from Adam’s side, women have been a pain ever since!  He used to say, “woman = woe unto man!”  This of course would cause my mother to roll her eyes and have a few rebuttals of her own, which was the whole point anyway, to get a rise out of his wife!  Fun times at the expense of the biblical story!

            In truth, God created woman from Adam’s side, near his vital organs, so as to communicate the delicate and intimate connection between him and her.  One rabbinical teaching says that God took the bone to create Eve, not from the head so as to imply that she would rule over the man, or from the foot to imply that Adam would keep her under his domination, but from the rib as equals.  It made Adam vulnerable to her and Eve to him.  

            The intimacy and vulnerability are communicated in verses like Gen. 2:23 “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”  Also in verse 24, “a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”  One translation states that the man shall cleave or hold fast to his wife, much like a vulnerable child clings to his or her mother.   

            Before we get too mushy romantic or too embarrassed from some threatened sense of masculinity, let’s read the last verse, Gen. 2:25.  “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”  From the beginning the woman does not exist apart from man. She must be near his side for that is home to her.  Neither can man deny the need he has for the comfort she brings him as his faithful and loving partner.   We should never feel shame to be vulnerable in this way to each other. Nakedness is less about sexuality and more about an innocence that husband and wife share when God has brought them together.

            Michele remembers when we were dating that we both agreed that God brought us together; that He made us for each other.  She admits that “even though we’ve had our share of trials through the years, it is with Scott that I most want to spend my time.  Before I make plans to do something without him I check first with him.  When we are apart, I tell him not to have too much fun without me.  I don’t want to miss out on anything.”  While other friendships are important, this is the one relationship that feels God picked.

That one flesh connection that God brings about in marriage is kind of like that Rod Stewart song, You’re In My Heart. “You’re in my heart. You’re in my soul, You'll be my breath should I grow old. You are my lover, you're my best friend. You're in my soul.”
            In what ways do you and your spouse exhibit this one flesh connection?  Are you unashamed of the need you have for one another in this intimate partnership?  What would happen if you both recognized your utter need for each other? 

What if men recognized that they need their wives affections like a boy needs his mother’s love?  What if women recognized that the place they feel most at home is at her man’s side, the man God has given to her?  Perhaps we might find healthier marriages, happier homes and a better society for the next generation.