I know that at times my preference for solitude can keep me from connecting with people. It is a great struggle for me sometimes to get out and visit with people, because I can’t shake the feeling that I am intruding on their lives and I might be wasting their time. I suppose for the most part that is not true, but that thought is always nagging me in the back of my mind whenever I sit down with someone.
Genesis 2:18-25
"The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God 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. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 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." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."
God stated that it is not good for man to be alone, but He never gives the reason why. Why is it not good for man to be alone? Was God tired of Adam talking to Him all the time, like a small child who has nothing to do? Or did He feel sorry for Adam, rattling around the garden, hair all messed up, three days beard stubble on his face, eating leftover eggplant Parmesan for breakfast? Who knows? But for some reason God decided that it was not good for man to be alone. So then, what is God’s first proposal? He brings all the animals for Adam to name. It would seem that God initially thought that one of the animals would be a good companion for the man. Perhaps there were a few, like monkeys or cheetahs, that Adam thought would be fun to hang out with, but apparently, God did not agree.
God decided instead to make another human being, this time not out of the dust of the ground but out of one of Adam’s ribs. But why? Why take something out of Adam to make another person? What does this mean for us?
God has wired us for community. No matter how solitary a person might be, at some point they require human contact. The movie, American Splendor, tells the true story of Harvey Pekar, a socially inept slob who works a dead-end job as a file clerk. He has no friends, and reeks of loneliness, but finds a creative outlet drawing comic books about his mundane life. They become an underground hit all over the country, and a woman who owns a comic book store in Delaware falls in love with him and they get married. When he is diagnosed with cancer, she helps him through to remission. She gives him a foundation on which to build some less inept social skills, and in the end he is still working his dead-end job, but he is finally, finally happy.
In reality, God made us less than a whole person. That is why we feel something missing when we are separated from our God or other people. We are really only about two-thirds of a person, and it is only when we conjoin ourselves with our helper that our center part is complete.
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