"Now Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. 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." Gen 2:19

My family accuses me of loving my dog Gus more than I love them.
My response is, "You are absolutely correct; Gus doesn't give me any lip!"
He is an uncomplicated gift, an easy companion, yet he will never offer a heart to heart or a word of wisdom. No matter how much I enjoy my dog; he can never take the place of the people I love.

Many lonely souls find solace in animals because their human relationships are just too hurtful, too complicated; but the yearning for human connection never truly dissipates.
God recognized in the first man this need for soul to soul companionship. He also knew it is partly fulfilled through the power of words, a power lacking in the animal kingdom. As God brought different species, Adam found no discourse. He handed out their names, and they gave him no lip about it.
Indeed there was no meeting of the minds...no oneness of heart...no conflict.
Until Eve.
Hearts revealed by the power of words and relationship deteriorated.
No doubt,  people are a complicated gift, hence the term "working relationship"!
The best thing in life is NOT free.
It is costly.
It is priceless.
It is rare.

"It is not good..."

"Then the Lord God said, It is NOT good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
Man alone was not good. In other words, man alone could not fulfill his created purpose: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth" 1:28. Man as a reflection of God's image must also produce life and be an extension of God's authority on earth. Adam could not fulfill his mission alone.
Man and woman...a match made in heaven.
Man and woman...a team to display God's glory on earth.
Man and woman...an interdependent unit, a microcosm of the Holy Trinity.
And God said, "Very good" at the completion of His creation.
I have my personal convictions of what it means to be created as a "helper suitable for him".
For starters, I see equality in essence, in purpose and in value.
Yet, He created them male and female; distinct in gender and in function.
Woman was made, not directly from dust as Adam was, but from Adam. Like it or not, man is woman's starting point and though equipped to give birth, a woman cannot do so without the initiation of the man. There is a created order that throughout history has been abused, but must be recognized.
Man is NOT superior to woman but within a marriage, there is a divine pattern for harmony and fulfillment of purpose.
When Phil and I were considering engagement, he told me that "I was made for him". I bristled at the comment...I still do! The idea that I was made for Phil's personal agenda is not what I am suggesting with all this talk. I was made "suitable for" God's personal agenda in creating man: a human race that is fruitful and displays Himself as the ultimate authority in life.
Each family will carry this mission out uniquely for although there is a general commission for all of us there is a specificity for each of us. How a wife "helps" each husband will be unique because each husband is unique. Think of how many cells make up a living organism...each cell making its own contribution. The family is like a cell functioning uniquely to fulfill the ultimate purpose of displaying a living and infinite God.
It is a weighty responsibility for a husband to seek God so intensely that He knows God's mission and leads his family in understanding and in humility before Him.
It is a weighty responsibility for a wife to seek God so intensely that she assists her husband in fulfilling God's mission and nurtures her family in understanding and in humility before Him.
I offer the following opinions with all sensitivity and respect-
Two people considering marriage must ask this critical question: "Is it 'good' that we two...become one?" If a woman does not fit with a man's particular mission, he is not the man for her! If a man doesn't know his particular mission, it's not time to get married!
I am thankful that Phil and I are on mission together.
Together, we desire to convey: Him; through our children and through our particular contribution to the world around us.

 The following link is for consideration: http://cbmw.org/uncategorized/summaries-of-the-egalitarian-and-complementarian-positions/.

"Now a river flowed out of Eden and there divided into four parts..."

Gushing, spreading, surrounding

water sustaining life

going from the place of God's presence 
to the outliers.

I don't want to reduce Genesis 2 to just an ancient tale of a garden and a river, merely a symbolic account. However,  the symbolism of God's Spirit flowing from the center of God's fellowship with man is unmistakeable. The river's source was within the garden, where God walked with man. The river's life giving potential flowed from its source then gushed and spread in all directions. Jesus made it clear that the one who believes in Him has this hope: abundant life in companionship and oneness with the Lord.  John 7:38-39, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

God's Spirit

gushes from
the innermost being of a believer in Jesus Christ
and reaches the outliers

with His love.

We have nothing else to really offer 

but this:

His love

overflowing from His presence
in us.
multiplying and spreading

flowing...

never stagnate;

this is the river of life.

A river flows...it moves or it is not a river. God's Spirit moves too. If your spiritual life is stagnate, perhaps you are living more separately from Him than you thought. Perhaps you are living like an outlier even though you've been invited into His presence. 

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’" Acts 17:24-28

About those trees...

My sweet grandmother Dorthea, as many of her spiritually minded peers, always loved the hymn "In the Garden". If you're a fan of country music or a baptist, you may be familiar with this hymn too:
"I come to the garden, alone
while the dew is still on the roses
and the voice I hear
falling on my ear
the Son of God discloses
and He walks with me
and He talks with me
and He tells me...
I am His own.
And the joy we share
as I tarry there
none other
has ever
known."

     I never loved it except to hear my Nanny sing it, with joy and confidence and more than a little off key.
I think of Adam when I hear this hymn, walking in the garden with God.
I think of Adam coming upon these two trees. Both good for food, beautiful to look at, and placed intentionally in Adam's world by God.
Two trees- one with an invitation and one with a prohibition.
And of course, on behalf of Adam and Eve and the entire human race I ask, "Why God? Why did you put that tree there?"
How could a temptation to make a wrong choice be a good thing?
     The Hebrew for "good" can mean: to serve a purpose...to perform a function well...to be fitting for the ultimate goal. What was that goal? It was to be a reflection of God's being and character and a partner in managing the created world (Gen. 1:26). But Adam was finite, limited. Adam was only human and so, it would take him forever to come into a full life experience of His purpose. It would take Him a forever of walking and talking with God to partner with Him in his position as "Image bearer of God"... "Assistant manager of the world". Since Adam would need forever, God planted the tree of life. A tree that would sustain Adam...would tend to the workings of his body with every sumptuous bite.
The other tree...the one we consider the source of the curse, would tend to the workings of his soul with every closed lip refusal to bite.
The option to trust and obey was an invitation to live and to love.
But Adam was new to life. He was new to God. He knew nothing of death. He knew nothing of evil.
God did.
God knew Satan.
God already knew loss and separation. God had already been betrayed by one of His own, Lucifer.
God knew the misery of being intimately acquainted with evil.
This knowledge, this personal experience of evil was something from which He wanted to protect Adam. But true intimacy must come from a choice to know and be known. It must come from a decision to trust. So God said "no" to the tree of knowing good and evil.
He didn't appear to give much of an explanation.
How many of us who have been parents understand that a two year-old wouldn't understand a long explanation of our "no". We also cannot place our two year-old in a position where we never have to say "no". How would they learn to trust us? How would they learn anything at all without choices? How would they learn to love?
God didn't begin his relationship with Adam with a bunch of rules...just one.
One "no" in their own little world of "yes"...
Just one opportunity to trust,
one opportunity to choose,
and an invitation to live...
to love
and to be loved.

God plants a garden...Gen. 2:5-8

I have a little garden in a small corner of our yard. There, surrounded by a little fence, grow little rows of cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, cauliflower (not sure why), and scallions. All around my little vegetables are big weeds. The things I want to eat I had to plant and care for; but the things I'd rather not eat came without any effort at all.
Ask any gardener...gardens take work. The first garden was no different. God sectioned off an area and planted a garden, food for the man he was ready to create.

God's garden would take effort. It would take intention. There were already things growing...wild things that grew at God's bidding but now He was making something to sustain the body and soul of a man. And the man would have to take part in the cultivating process. God's garden was distinct from the rest of creation as a place of partnership between Creator and created. God's garden was a place designed for relationship.
Then,
the "LORD GOD" made man.
 Moses, the author of Genesis, refers to God for the first time in Genesis 2:5 as a personal God, the Supreme One who makes Himself known to His own....
the God who comes close to His people.
God scooped up the dirt and organized cells into the body of a man.
From the substance of the earth, the common material for all living beings, God fashioned Adam.
Then from the breath of God,
 came the breath of man.
And God set Adam in His paradise.

God's Rest - Part 2

Light-brite night
in bursts of
white
you stutter
as you host;
on leaf
on blade
throngs spark and fade
and flit from rail
to post.

At Home- Last night in our back field fire-flies danced a thousand dances.

On Vacation- Ancient, fleshy sandstone slumps down into vibrating emerald waters like gigantic legless elephant feet. Water meets rock in tragic, barren beauty.

For Christmas- The boys sang, as if the angels cracked the clouds and our ears tapped into their song...and my heart squeezed out the tears of stabbing joy.

In Love- And now I know that human arms can feel like God Himself is holding you.

As a Mom- The best smell on earth: my nose in the feathery fuzz of my babies' heads.

Any day, Any time, Anywhere- chocolate

These are moments when God has wooed me in His wordless way-
"look
listen
feel
smell
taste...
I am."

These are moments of God, not moving mountains for me
but in the everydayness of every day, still communicating His power, His beauty, His love...
Him.
He shows not what He can do for me, but who He is.
The seventh day of creation: Man's second day.
Adam and Eve enjoyed all that God had created as man and woman, in the beginning of the discovery of God...they went about seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting
God.
And God let Himself be known.

Genesis 2:1-3

Leaves hang and shimmy in shades of
green
greener
greenest
above my head.
Gus stretches, yawns and I just lie there...
doing nothing?
wasting time?
No, we are definitely doing something.
We are resting!
We are enjoying!
There will be more work to do but for now,
Gus and I know when to say "When"!

The idea of rest in Genesis 2 does not imply that God needed an escape from work, only that when the work was done, He knew it. 

He knew when to say "when"!
God at rest does not imply He needed to regain His strength either. God rested, or ceased His work, because He saw the value of enjoying it. He knew that humans would soon begin the wrecking of Paradise, but on the seventh day...His work was done.
So, He rested.
He enjoyed.
By stopping to take in what He had completed, God honored the moment...He "blessed" it. Creation was something to celebrate, so God memorialized it on the seventh day.
Cultures around the world have very different takes on the idea of rest. Some cultures seem to rest most of the time while others barely stop for breath. No matter where a person may fall on the continuum of work and rest,
universally,
humanity seeks enjoyment...
in work or at play or through some form of escape.
A space inside of us begs to be filled with joy, endlessly driving of us through cycles of pain and pleasure.
But there is futility in our own work and in our own enjoyment,
the sense of "my work is never done"
or
"there's never enough fun"...
God is our example.
His work and His pleasure is never futile,
never nothing
never a waste of time...

Can you stop long enough to honor His work in you? If enjoying yourself isn't working for you, begin enjoying Him.

Philippians 1:6

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁶ And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

On the eve of the greatest unraveling in history, God rested. 
Thousands of years later, He still works to restore His plan for the world...
starting with you.
And some day, that too will be complete.
Now that is something to celebrate!