Once again, I take my inspiration, and likely, many of my thoughts, from others. Namely Allen Hood, Bill and Charis Scofield, Shaun Mitsuda, Jenn Green... and other amazing people... actually think I stole this title from Shaun. Sorry budd. :)
This is one of my favorite stories.....
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created everything in them. He created man. A man in his image. The image-bearer of God, made from dust, whose very breath of life is the Spirit of God. And his name was Adam. Then, God placed the man in a garden to tend it.
Genesis 2:8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.
and again.
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
But there was a problem. Man was lonely. He wanted a companion, a helper, a friend, a lover... someONE else. God saw this.
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
God brought all of the other created beings to Adam to see if any suitable helper could be found.
Genesis 2:19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. 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. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
I think about this.... what must Adam have felt like? Looking upon all of these hundreds of thousands of species of animals, aching for one who matched him in stature, in nature, in essence. And here we find the answer.......... no mate was found for Him........ there was not one created for Him yet. How lonely must he have felt.... for all of the other created beings had partners. But for Man, there was none.
But God knew this.......... He knew that no suitable match for Adam would be found.
Wow. So.... God created the ache of loneliness in Adam...
I can image Adam crying out:
"Why, God?? Why bring all of these others before me when You know none will satisfy this ache in my soul??? WHY?!"
But God, in his everlasting loving-kindness knew what he needed. It was His plan.
Genesis 2:21
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
It's in passages like this that we have to ask ourselves, "God why did you do it this way? You could have just made the woman when you made the man. Why did you bring all the other creatures before him when you knew it wasn't good for him to be alone? Why?"
The answer is breathtaking in it's implication. I think God did it for one two-fold reason.
Part 1: To reveal to Adam that he needed a companion who was bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. Part of him. SomeONE who could match him love for love, life for life.
which is part of the bigger picture in:
Part 2: The greatest revelation of all: To reveal to us God's ache to form a family for Himself and a Bride for His eternal Son that is matched in LOVE to Him. Bone of His Bone. Flesh of His Flesh.
God wanted an equally yoked love-partner. So he made me. He made you. He made us.
In His image. And later we find that the Eternal Son became flesh and dwelt among us. Just as the first Adam, Jesus, too, went into a deep sleep and His Bride was formed out of the wounds of His side just like Adam. This is what what Paul is talking about when he extols the mystery of God in Ephesians.
Ephesians 5:
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30because we are members of his body.
.... bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh....
He recalls the writings of the author of Genesis where it says
2:6 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.
and continues...
31 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
This is the mystery of the ages. That which the angels look upon in awe.
God is a Lover. Looking for a lover. He aches for equally yoked, totally compatible, entirely-matched-in-it's-intensity-and-purity LOVE.
God doesn't need anything. He didn't have to do it this way. But He did... amazing.
So I, too, find myself in this place of loneliness... of aching for love. It's no surprise to God. He created me for love. Just like Adam, just like Jesus, I long for a helpmate, one who will be my companion.
It is innate in me because it is innate in Him.
This lovesickness happens in every human heart. But we run away from loneliness. We go to great great lengths to assuage the ache. We put idols and other lovers of all shapes and sizes in that void...
But always, always it is dissatisfying, not enough, and I. still. ache.
In reading this passage today, I had the greatest revelation:
I was designed to ache.
What? This goes against my grain. I do not enjoy the ache.
But I was... Designed... to ache with love.
Because Jesus aches for me too.
And He is intimately acquainted with my ways. He knows how to produce this lovesickness in my heart.
Just as God did with Adam in the garden.
It is His goal to produce pure, wholehearted lovers for His Son. An equally yoked, matched-in-love, radiant Bride.
This is the plan of God for my life. That I would become a lover of Jesus. This is more important to Him than anything else. More important than my relationships, more important than my personal ministry dreams, more important... than... anything. It is the first and greatest commandment.
Mark 12:29Jesus answered, "The foremost [commandment] is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD;30AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.'
I long for Him and because I long for Him, I seek Him above all others. Lovesickness produces genuine Love for Jesus.
Its the same story we see in Song of Solomon 5.
5:-8
I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone.
My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not;
I called him, but he gave no answer.
The watchmen found me
as they went about in the city;
they beat me, they bruised me,
they took away my veil,
those watchmen of the walls.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved,
that you tell him
I am sick with love.
The Daughters of Jerusalem ask her, "Why do you thus adjure us?"
How do you still seek Him when He has "left you"? Why do you risk your reputation, your personal comfort, your very life for this man? What is your Beloved more than another?
I've talked about this before. She tells them about her beloved, extolling him, going on and on about how amazing He is.... She learns to love him through the longing.
And God knows that it is this lovesickness that produces wholehearted love. That will cause me to hunger and thirst for righteousness, that will make me seek ONE THING with all my being.
So my conclusion is this: To become a lover of God and the true Bride of Christ, I must embrace this loneliness.
I must embrace this season, this feeling, this test of my heart.
I cannot try to fill this void with another love.
Jesus is worthy of an equally yoked Bride. It is my first and highest call to love Him with my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Truly truly only Jesus satisfies me. He must become first in all things.
Colossians 1:18. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
And so.... I will embrace the ache of a lovesick heart.
For surely, surely I will find EVERYTHING when I find Him.
...Song of Solomon 3:4
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
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