“But for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:21-24).
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| An irresistible match? |
God gives the gift of woman, to man
How romantic… God saw the a-lone-ness of man and gave him the gift of a woman, someone to call his own, quite literally. She was crafted from a rib taken from him and when he awoke, he recognized this immediately and stated “This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” and he named her woman, because “she was taken out of man”.
Switched or a perfect match
I have this suspicion, that there is a woman made for every man and that sometimes, just like babies getting switched in the hospital and parents going home with the wrong one, men and women end up with… the wrong one! When I look around me and I see the dissolution of marriages, I come to three very simple conclusions 1. There was a mismatch 2. There was a match but the partners made sure somehow, that they were not going to make the relationship work 3. One or the other partner decided investing in the relationship was not worth the effort
Intentions impact relationship
I am not a sociologist, I am an observer. I know relationships can be complex but I also know that everything can be boiled down to one thing… intentions. I recall reading the book Crucial Conversations and a take away from the book was to ask ourselves relationship questions that run along the lines:
What do you want for the other person?
What do you want for yourself?
What do you want in relationship with the other?
What are you willing to do to have what you want?
This is were things can get tricky, dicey even. You and the person across for you, the one you decided to partner with, may not have the same intentions. In fact, you can know this for sure by how you interact and feel in each others company. When one or the other or more effectively, both parties, are willing to ask the questions and answer them honestly, kindly, thoughtfully, miracles can and do happen. Sometimes, mismatched individuals can synchronized and form a beautiful union, a match with intentionality as the glue.
Ignoring God
A man, a woman… God forming and shaping each. There is the physical fit ness, the one ness of the combined creatures. We are designed to belong, to one another, each other and somehow make it all seem effortlessly enchanting. The behind the scenes work of intentionality is what makes it so, this glorious representation of connectedness. God knew what he was doing and he still does now. I wonder, did God make one man, one woman pairs, meant to be and we simply, ignored?
Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, how romantic…
