“A Gift Like No Other…”
One of my all time favorite scripture references is the account of creation; not because of the controversy between creation & evolution, although I will freely admit my bias as a biblical creationist, but because of the process of creation itself. Everything we know, see, smell, and touch is the result of God’s desire to spend time with us. Mortals, with free will to love our creator, or not; to listen to and learn from a being that can speak the very fabric of time into existence with a single word. I think for the most part humanity itself has little, or no, understanding of the scope and value in creation. In many ways our desire to be in control of all that is around us, to find a reasonable explanation for everything and anything, as long as it does not involve God, clouds our appreciation for the immeasurable complexity of even the simplest thing.
Within this brief history of humanities beginning is a line that is almost always looked over, or just plain ignored, is the differences in the creation of man and woman. I’m not going to be exhaustive here, but I would like to point out a few things and leave you to find the appropriate level of appreciation for you.
Let’s start with Genesis 2:7, “7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living being.”(NABS)
Mankind, in our limited existence, is a three part being: Body, Spirit, Soul. Our bodies, like all of creation, were formed from dirt, sustained by dirt, and in the end will return to dirt. So when God was forming the body of man, He was shaping the vessel that would connect us with the rest of creation. Then He breathed into us the breath of life, and we became a living being. This part is important because it highlights two things. First, that the life given to us is different from all the rest of creation. The rest of life on earth is relegated merely to biology. The life given to us goes beyond biology and into eternity. It is the living breath of God, a tiny piece of His eternal existence. A type of life that is incomprehensible on this side of eternity. Secondly, the life given to man at this moment was the life that was taken in the fall. Death was promised to Adam if he ate from the forbidden trees. We know they ate, and we know that God is not a liar. So, what happened, what died? In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that we must be “reborn” of the spirit in order to see the kingdom of heaven. Looking at both sides of this coin it should be easy to see that we must regain what was lost. The life we gain in Christ is due to the atonement of our sin, the renewal of the connection between man and God, between creation and creator. In the next few verses we see God extend His heart toward man in a truly amazing way.
“18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”(NASB)
This verse really has little to do with what I am talking about here, but I find it very funny. It’s as if God is looking down from heaven and all He has created, then He looks at the man and says to Himself, “I cannot leave this guy unsupervised.” Now, if that bothers any male egos out there I would like to apologize… I’m not going to, but you should at least know that the thought crossed my mind. The reason I am not going to is not because we are all a bunch of mindless cavemen, but because of what God does next, and guys you really need to pay attention to this part in Genesis 2:21-22, “21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
22 The Lord God fashioned the woman from the rib which He had taken from the man, and then brought her to the man.”(NASB)
Here is the line that we all to often overlook: “The Lord fashioned the woman from the rib…” Did you see it, or are you scratching your head wondering what I’m all worked up for? Let me point it out in another way. Where did all the rest of life come from… DIRT!!! Where did woman come from… Life!!! Of all the life on the planet, women are the only ones not made from dirt. Guys, God did not want us to be alone so He gave us a gift unlike anything else on the planet, unique in every way. The translation of “formed” when it comes to woman means sculpted, compared to the formation of men which is basically translated “pressed.” For generations, women have been given second place in the life of the church because a man decided that, “women submit yourselves to your own husband” should apply to all women and all men, married or not, and society has gone along with it. The truth is that God created us to be equals in life, but with defined roles in family. I think that if we, and by that I mean men, want to really appreciate the incomprehensible complexity of our mortality just a little bit better than we do now, then we need to stop trying to control everything around us and appreciate, in the highest way possible,the gift of Woman. You might just find out that God knew what He was doing. More on this later.