“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper [ezer] suitable/opposite [kenegdo] for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭18‬-‭24‬ ‭ESV‬‬

It is not good for humanity to be alone. From the beginning we were made to love and be loved - wholly, sacrificially, with delight and honour. All to flourish and fill the world with the beauty, awe and the value we were imbued with. And yet we strayed, we rebelled, we were unfaithful. We turned our back on Love. We used one another, we subjugated and abused one another. We turned ever inward. We became incapable of truly loving one another, we even became incapable of loving ourselves.

So the God of love, in whose image we were made, came down. He became flesh of our flesh, bone of our bones; one of us. All for love; the very love that drove Him to create, in the beginning. He became the Helpful Other. Different yet like. Out of His great love, the love that ignited the stars, He gave of Himself. He healed, He restored, He taught, He challenged, He modelled grace and truth, and beauty and delight. He dignified and elevated those we chose to mar and malign. He gave purpose to those we deem aimless. He redefined power and honour and the true good. And He did it to the very end. Self-sacrificially, as He was unjustly tortured, abused, slandered, and murdered. Why? So that not even death would separate us from His love and the love He came to restore to our hearts.

A love so great, it cannot be contained or put out, but must propagate, perpetuate, igniting hearts and minds. Captivating our souls to wonder and awe. Restoring our capacity to love one another as He did. Reforging us, restoring us to become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, all until the glorious day of His return. Therefore humanity will leave behind the things of old, the hurts, the pains, the evils of our hearts and this broken world, to unite with our saviour, our Lord, our God. And never again shall we separate.

““Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5‬:‭31‬-‭32‬ ‭ESV‬‬