It is not good for anyone to be alone. Solo acts are not set up by God. Every one of us is meant to live in community, not to be self-sufficient, self-reliant, private. Not to be the center of our own drama. Not to be alone.
In the beginning of the creation story in Genesis, God spends two chapters creating and setting up the world, saying “It’s good…It’s good…It’s good…” and then all of the sudden, He says, “It’s not good.” The thing He says it’s not good about is being alone. “It is not good that the man should be alone.” (1) God looked to Adam and saw that he was missing something. Something important. Something that God as Trinity had enjoyed from the reaches of eternity. He was missing fellowship. He was alone.
So what He does is create an equal, a friend, a partner, a companion, a completer. Not someone to quote, not someone to worship, not someone to subdue, but someone to share, someone to lean on, someone to avail, someone to enjoy. The Hebrew word used for her is ezer kenegdo, and elsewhere in the bible only refers to God. Eve is so much more than a partner. Eve is…wow…Eve is beautiful. Eve is a worth living for, fighting for, dying for. Eve makes Adam want to be a better man. That’s how I interpret “Flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone”! But Eve is more than a girlfriend, more than a wife. In Eve the very design of God for human life is revealed—as partner, as wife, as mother, as friend.
We talk a lot about what happened soon after, how Adam and Eve fell and all that…but tonight, I am in a mellow mood. I am just going to sit down and rest for a while here. Soak it all in. I want to just sit on this patch of warm grass in this pungent place and contemplate this perfect human fellowship. No competing. No envy. No offenses. No maneuvering. No protocol. No doubting. No despising. No coveting. No revenge. No devouring. No grudges. No guilt. Just two hearts bathed in the love of God, loving each other, letting creation know they are His disciples by their love one for another.
Isn’t it about time for this to be restored?
I love sitting here in this garden, enjoying watching, even if I’m not participating in fellowship like this—beautiful, strong, uninhibited, honest, naked, and unashamed. I love sitting here in the wholeness of it all, the unbroken communion, the unfailing friendship, the unspoken pleasure. I love it even though I feel so far from it. Could we ever get it back? What would it take? How would it start? Who would it start with?
Life together bringing forth more life together, a reunion of body and soul and spirit, where knowing each other is more than knowing about each other and more than knowing the use of the other, where the knowing of each other actually conceives new life, procreating as active participants with the creative source of all life. Hearts as heart fountains. Mothers and fathers and friends in one, enjoying and being enjoyed, loving and being loved, overflowing in streams of life.
I think that’s what God meant when He said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” And it is about time.
(1) Genesis 2:18
6 comments:
From time to time I hear someone say, and from time to time I think, "All I need is God." Maybe it goes with something catchy like, "He's my supply" or "No one knows my heart like Jesus". It usually comes at a moment of frustration or conflict, some wound or misunderstanding from someone trusted.
But the truth is, "It is not good for the man to be alone." What is good is fellowship, community, a free flow of love from and to each and every one of us, including God, or else everything sours.
Adam had unbroken fellowship with God, and God said it wasn't good. Being alone with God is not good. It is incomplete.
I wonder if there was a moment when God thought, "It isn't good for me to be alone."
And so He made this universe, and placed us in it, so He could have some deep communion with a creature who He made to need exactly the same thing.
Like Father, like son.
And I wonder when the idea was floated to have a son what feelings were aroused. Did anyone feel threatened that another like them would be added to their circle? “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule.” Was there jealousy or fear or resentment? Would the inclusion of Man downgrade the fellowship that already existed? Or would they enrich it? Certainly the inclusion would come at great cost.
And I marvel at the humility of a God who would then say to a man, “It is not good for you to just have me—I will give you someone else.”
Could it be that even our fall, that which led to the most shameful event in the history of the universe (the crucifixion of the Messiah), actually drew out something in God that had never, ever been exercised.
That is, God has attributes such as love, care, creativity, etc. that were satisfied in the mere act of existing by Himself. And they were exercised when He created us and the world.
But His mercy, His forgiveness, His wrath, His courage, His compassion -- attributes such as these would never have been drawn out without the fall. Without His having to deal with US -- to condemn us, to pass that condemnation onto His son, and to rescue us.
If this is the case, then I wonder if even _I_ can be more, simply by knowing _you_. And you can be more, simply by knowing (and being known by) me. This thing called "fellowship" changes us. Draws us out. Shapes us. Molds us.
It's very Godly to be impacted by and to impact others.
Yeah, like certain flavors in food are unlocked by others. I have a friend who is a gourmet chef. He cooked for us one time--lamb in cinnamon and chocolate. I would never have guessed how good it would be. Some things have to be tasted.
C.S. Lewis said that a friendship is enhanced by the addition of another (if the other truly belongs in the friendship) because each member draws out different new things in the members. Each person in a friendship has a part in each other. Until C is added to A and B, C's part in A is unknown, hidden. And if C dies or is lost, C's part in A is also lost, along with C's part in B. It sounds so geometric, but I imagine everyone has experienced this. When a lost friend rejoins my group, there is more than just me getting them back, there is an enjoyment of the others getting them back as well.
So I see God wanting to enjoy not only his part in me, but my friends' part in me as well. I draw out things in my friends, and my friends in me. Maybe it's through encouragement or sacrifice or listening or laughter. As God and I add friends to our relationship, there are all these new things that get drawn out. God gets to enjoy my friend's part in me. And God gets to enjoy my part in my friend. I get to enjoy my friend's part in God. I get to enjoy God's part in my friend. My friend gets to enjoy God's part in me. My friend gets to enjoy my part in God. We unlock flavors that before were untasted.
The effect, the impact, we have on God and on each other all works together for good.
So THAT'S what that verse means. I always thought it meant my life would go smoothly. Heh.
Thanks for this thread, Steve. I needed it.
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