“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” (Genesis 2:18)
This verse is, of course, taken from the Creation account of the Bible. God had just created Adam, placed him in the Garden of Eden, and told him to dress it – keep it, prune it, tend it. This was the final touch of the creation process. All the heavens were created in put in order, the earth was formed, vegetation sprang forth, animals and birds and creatures of the sea were created. Now man. All was good up to this point.
For the first time we see God say that something was not good. As He looked over the entire creation, at each turn God said, “It was good.” But when He beheld man living alone in the Garden – well, this was not good. Man needed a partner, an help meet, someone who could walk alongside him, keep him company, and help him fulfill God’s command to have dominion over all creation.
I heard a Jewish Rabbi discussing this very subject just yesterday. He was saying that there is a difference between being lonely and being alone. Oddly enough, he quoted Billy Joel’s song “Piano Man” in his talk. There is a line in that song that says, “They were sharing a drink they called loneliness, but it’s better than drinking alone.” Loneliness is a sense of being by yourself – apart from everybody else, unnoticed, unimportant. Alone is being – alone. There is literally no one there for you. Big difference. Even if you live with someone who doesn’t love you, at least you’re not alone. If you find yourself in a foreign land amongst strange people, at least you’re not alone. It is not good to be alone. I recently heard of an office in a large city that closed out business on Friday night and everyone went home for the weekend. Monday morning when they all returned, they noticed a distinct slight odor in the building but didn’t think too much about it. Tuesday morning the smell was much stronger – so much so that they began to search the building for the source. What they found was a woman who had died – apparently the Friday before - in her cubicle on the fourth floor. Nobody noticed that she hadn’t left with everyone else. Nobody checked on her over the weekend – no family, friends, no one. THAT is being alone.
God created each of us with a need for social interaction. We need others in our lives. We can’t make it on our own in this world – spiritually, mentally, or apparently physically. God set about fashioning a partner for Adam – one who would perfectly complement him in every way. He was careful to make her not just functional but also attractive to Adam, that his desire might be for her.
This isn’t necessarily a teaching on marriage or romantic relationships, but it is a reminder that Jesus founded the idea of the church on the fact that we need each other. We may be complete ourselves, but we cannot complete the Body of Christ all by ourselves. One may lead worship, another might bring the message, somebody else may be a greeter or an usher, and someone different may clean the church. In Paul’s writings to the church at Corinth (I Corinthians 12), he wrote that the Church (Body of Christ) is made up of many parts. Think about it: there are trillions of individual cells in the human body that are divided into over 200 different types of cells. These various cell types make up the different systems and parts of the human body. Yet if one of them goes rogue, it develops a cancer cell. That cell multiplies several times faster than a normal, healthy cell – thus it becomes a mass. Left unchecked and unaddressed, that mass can (and does) eventually kill the entire body. That’s why we have systems built into our bodies that fight infections and foreign invaders – to keep the entire body healthy and each part in check.
The same is true, sadly, of the Church. We need each other to function properly, to be sure. But we also need each other to keep us in check – to check our attitudes, to check our behaviors, to check our spirits. Once an individual cell (a person) goes rogue, they develop cancer within the Body. Left unchecked and unaddressed they will kill that body. I don’t want to take this into a negative zone (I’m afraid I’ve already opened that door, though), but we need to address these issues early and often in order to maintain a healthy atmosphere for the Body to grow and function. That is why we are to pray for each other. That is why we are to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. That is why we are to love one another. We need each other like two monkeys picking bugs off each other. (Sorry, but I had to lighten the mood a little.)
Our challenge is to love one another. Jesus said that is how the world will know we are His – by our love. You and I need brothers and sisters to make it through – to complete our gifts with theirs – and that we might fulfill His command to us to have dominion over the world around us. I encourage you to gather those into your life who will uplift you, encourage you, pray for you, and yes, correct you if necessary. And not just one or two. You need a family around you. Seek them out. See how you can serve them. Be a servant and a blessing to others.
Be blessed.
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