We call Him "Father"

"In the beginning God...
Now the serpent..."

There is a trend in the Church toward story-telling;  to tell our story as part of God's story, to respect each other's story...
the story starts here, in Genesis.
Whatever your story has become, Genesis tells its beginning.
Revelation tells its resolution,
and everything in between- the conflict.
Here within the pages of the Bible is a varied and extensive cast of characters but God is the main character; this is His story, His plot;
He is the point.
All religions begin with a story; ours begins with the Triune God.
Unlike other religions who claim faith in a singular God; the God of the Bible exists in and for relationship. In other words, the God of the Bible is the only One who can exist in love because He is the only One who exists in relationship. Love begins with Him, and it is out of His love, that life springs. God loved, therefore God created. (That is why Christians say: "It isn't a religion...it's a relationship.")
As initiator and source of life, we call Him "Father". Put aside all the feminist crap (that's about as strong a word as I'll use although a stronger would be fitting) about Christianity being chauvinistic ... we call Him "Father" because He is the originator of life! This is not about comparing the sexes! Stop wrestling God's own Word into your own agenda. Man was created in His image as life giver (Father), so God MADE first a male (Adam), then man was made in His image of life nurturer, so God MADE next a female (Eve). The sexes were created to work as a partnership in expressing His character NOT His gender.
But before creation...before God was compelled to create the world of mankind; God existed with the Son. Jesus eternally exists based upon the life-giving nature of the Father. Jesus is the first "begotten" of God. And yes, Jesus entered human history as a perfect man, the fullness of Deity expressed in humanity , as the communication of life from the giver of it....
Then the Spirit...The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. There is no "Him" or "Her" assigned. The Holy Spirit, in fellowship with the Father and the Son, empowers life.
But the cast of characters in the story of our faith is not complete in Genesis 1-2. Like all great plots, the Bible tells the story of conflict. Genesis 3:1 Enter Satan:
"Now, the Serpent..."
Fresh on the heels of Adam and Eve,
Satan.
Satan is also called a Father (although I've never seen anyone outraged and pumping banners: "What if Satan's a woman?"). Satan is the Father of lies (John 8:44), the twister of all that is good into evil.
We have limited information and differing opinions on the origin of Satan but most theologians agree that Satan is a fallen angel (Is. 14:12-15, Ez. 28:13-17); created to worship God but attempting the coup of the ages. Like the classic evil dictator; he had no inherent rights to any power. He cleverly swindled it out the hands and hearts of Adam and Eve. Indwelling the serpent, he drew Eve into conversation. "Did God really say...?" Satan fanned the embers of pride, lust and greed. He began by causing doubt: Had Eve understood correctly? Did God really mean what she thought he meant? Was it really for her good? Did God really care about her good? Were the consequences of disobedience really that bad?  Would what she stood to gain outweigh  those consequences?
The doubts that Satan planted in the thinking of Eve, drew her away from truth...away from love and into the lie that we are worthy objects of our own worship. Satan was right about one thing; Eve did become more like God that day, now she knew evil.
Hello, Satan.
Goodbye, Eden.

No Shame

Perfect God creates perfect man and woman.
Perfect man lives in perfect love with God and woman.
Perfect....nothing short of perfect.
Nothing to hide...nothing to fear,
yet.
Adam and Eve lived enthralled by each other and by God;
Wrapped in blissful self-unawareness,
innocent
known
loved and loving
secure
and
vulnerable.
Perfect vulnerability.
Perfect love cannot exist outside of vulnerability.
Can we say God is vulnerable?
IF we believe God is triune...yes, He is vulnerable.
Because He exists as a trinity, a loving fellowship of three. I believe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share a mutual vulnerability to each other. They are fully known and fully affected by each other...but they live in perfect love,
a perfectly secure community.
Adam and Eve were made to reflect God in every way. Adam and Eve were vulnerable;
and while they lived within the covering of His love, they felt completely secure.
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear..." 1 John 4:18a

"The man and His wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." Genesis 2:25

Perfect love casts out fear.

WHEN 2=1

Genesis 2:21 "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

23 And Adam said:

“This is now bone of my bones

And flesh of my flesh;

She shall be called Woman,

Because she was taken out of Man.”

When God the Father escorted Eve to Adam, Adam exclaimed, "Bone of my bone! Flesh of my flesh!" and embraced his gift.
A gift's value is determined by the one who gives and the one who receives...Eve was most highly valued. She was not one more animal. She was not from "Venus". Eve was not an accoutrement to be used and discarded. She was Adam's flesh. She was his bone...literally.
What began in physical reality is still possible in depth of mental, emotional and spiritual attachment. Marriage is a sacrament...an outward sign of an inward act of grace. 
Marriage is a miracle of two separate individuals acting ever on the behalf of the other, living for the sake of their union, modeling the incredible Divine Trinity. What was, comes into something new

and gives us a picture of what will be. 
Once I was a Morris, a reserved Baptist from Lancaster,  and Phil was a Carnuccio, a wild, fresh convert from Little Italy...well almost. Together we form something uniquely joined for God's glory. We are limbs that are stretched further than before,
eyes that are opened wider than before
and ears that are listening more intently than before
"us".
 Everyday that we fight through the barriers of knowing and caring for each other's hearts, we become increasingly inseparable.  No question, we are not alike (thank God) but we are one. And if Phil loves me and cares for me out of that oneness, as if caring for his own body, I will be very loved indeed! 

Paul said, "A husband ought to love his wife, as he loves his own body.' Eph 5:28. 

How different would culture be if husbands treated wives as their own flesh and bone?
But men abuse and women use and children treat the most sacred connection of all with complete disdain. Like a dark comedy playing out on a world stage, marriage has no consequence because it is entered into with nothing left to give in heart, in mind or in deed.   A pseudo sense of intimacy lasts for a few moments, a few fleeting days...weeks...maybe months before it is torn and tossed... ripping flesh and breaking bone. There is no true "oneness" to be had because it has been given away piece by piece. Piece by piece we shed  humanity until feeling little more than animal urge and instinct; 
crawling to the grave, 
fractured frames of a man and woman that could have been. 

Of course, I cannot say it better than Shakespeare:

"How comes it now, my husband, O, how comes it,

That thou art then estranged from thyself?

Thyself I call it, being strange to me,

That, undividable, incorporate,

Am better than thy dear self's better part.

Ah, do not tear away thyself from me;

For know, my love, as easy mayst thou fall

A drop of water in the breaking gulf,

And take unmingled thence that drop again

Without addition or diminishing,

As take from me thyself, and not me too.

For if we two be one, and thou play false,
I do digest the poison of thy flesh,
Being strumpeted by thy contagion.
Keep then fair league and truce with thy true bed;
I live dis-stain'd,
thou undishonoured. "

Adriana- A Comedy of Errors

The One who let His flesh be ripped is our hope of being made whole. He is the hope of inward grace shifting a life, 
and making two,
one.
Jesus prayed to His Father:
"The glory which You have given Me I have given them, that they may be one , just as We are one; I in them and You in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent me and loved them even as You have loved Me."
John 17: 22-23

The hope of the world begins in the homes of His people,
when two equal one.

"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.