Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

“At last!” the man exclaimed.

“This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” Genesis 2:18,21-23 New Living Translation (NLT)

God and Adam had work to do on that first Saturday afternoon so long ago: the naming of the all the birds in the sky, the beasts, and the livestock. It was pretty sweet that God allowed Adam the honor of naming those living, breathing creations. I wonder if God was writing it all down in a thick bound book, His finger engraving their names in a godly calligraphy?

Somewhere in the process it became apparent to God that Adam was ‘alone’. And for the first time God seemed to think something He had created was less than ‘good’. Up until then, everything He had created was declared by Him to be ‘very good’. Huh… what to do?

God cared about Adam’s ‘aloneness’, so He decided to create someone so very like Adam that he would have a companion who could speak his language, understand his thoughts, and share his journey. She would walk and work alongside him, and together, they would become one.

This became something new - this desire for relationship. Creator God had fellowship with His creation – yet He also gave man a longing for companionship with someone who was made like him.

Man and woman. 

In our culture of often pitting woman and man against each other, we need to let this sink in; God created woman because man needed her, and she alone, in all the earth, would be a ‘suitable helper’ for him. 

They were created to share the work they had been entrusted with, as well as to share the pleasure and companionship of each other. They were to live in unity as one flesh.

God could have simply spoken her into being, but instead, we are told, the Woman was taken from within Man’s body – a rib bone from his side, symbolizing that they would work and love and live together side by side.

So God performed a little surgery. Every other creature was created from the dust of the earth and spoken into being; but creation of woman was something different. The first surgery, performed by God, required the first anesthesia, and God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep.

When Adam awakens, God, acting as Father of the Bride, presents her to her groom. Photographers stand by for the moment of the ‘first look’. 

And finally we hear Adam speak for the first time. He speaks a blessing on their relationship. It is a declaration of unity, acknowledging the intimate connection of ‘bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh’.

Two shall become One. Man and Woman. United. Together.

There’s an additional little detail of their nakedness, before the sun goes down on this sixth day. Nakedness symbolized ‘no boundaries’ between them– nothing held back, or hidden. 

The sun sinks below the horizon and God paints His colors into the nighttime sky. The newly named creatures settle down for the night. All was right with the world. 

Adam, you now may kiss your bride.

Question: Were you aware that the Lord God, Creator of the Universe, cared so very much about us not feeling alone? This story tells us He desires relationship – with us, and for us. Does that surprise you?

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved