I used to feel a little dull thinking about a lot of the "Bible stories" -- Joseph, Creation, JacobandEsau, etc., all nuggetized and divorced from one another in the poor retellings of today. I vowed years ago that when I grew up and had a family, I was going to read to my kids from the Bible FIRST, and no-one was going to find just any Bible storybooks on my shelf. But every time my father preaches on one of those old "Bible Stories", he forges a new perspective for them, glowing with so many more connections than the simple-retellers would have us believe. He shows me depth, logic, and beauty in them that I never dreamed.
Yesterday our morning sermon was on Genesis 2:18-25, the passage where the LORD creates Eve as a companion for Adam, "because there was found no helper comparable to him". We began with comparing the institution of marriage to that of the Sabbath day, and moved on to the wisdom of God in having Adam exercise his stewardship over the creatures, and simultaneously showing him his need for a helper and companion, and Adam's realization and -- probable -- query to God for help. And we touched on the miracle of the woman's making (the rib is the only regenerative bone in the body, did you know that!)
Ah, I didn't even mean to go through all that other material. But I heard it all so gladly, and it is fresh and eager in my memory.
Then at last came the climax, the beauty that made my eyes fill up.
"Bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh."
With these words Adam does not merely refer to the woman's creation; she was from a bone, yes, but not flesh. Indeed, he states her origin far more overtly in the next lines. Instead, he designates her as his pure completion. The bone is strong, the flesh is soft. "You," he says to his bride, "are my strength and my tenderness."
"My strength and my tenderness."
Did ever such a glorious depiction of the woman's role exist?
She is not over him, but she is with him, to love and to cherish. She is his helper, even as he is hers, for what one lacks the other supplies.
He is her head, and she is his strength and his tenderness.
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Verity's Book
RandomRandom book. You know those random books people have? Tags. Art. Announcements. Blog-ish sort of things. Random facts about their characters. Tags. Tags. More tags. Yeah... that's pretty much what this is. I know, I know, you want to read it. They a...
