Sometimes it’s the details that matter. There’s this little detail in the 2nd chapter of Genesis that reveals an important reality about being human. In the 1st chapter, God repeats over and over, after every day of creation, that what He has made is good. Everything is perfect and wonderful. And then, in the next chapter we hear about something being not good.
You see, Adam had just finished naming all of the animals. Based on how many species of animals exist, or did exist, this probably took an incredibly long time. I love what the writer of Genesis says about this process:
“But for Adam no suitable helper was found.”
Either Adam was trying to hang out with the hippos or he noticed that every other species had a female counterpart while he was alone. He spent a really long day or perhaps 100 years expecting to find a girl hiding behind the next tree.
Whatever the case, God made a declaration:
“It’s not good for the man to be alone.”
This has nothing to do with sin either because that comes in the next chapter. It has to do with community.
The author of Genesis tells us that humans are created in God’s image. This means that we reflect his nature. God exists in relationship—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Community is at the heart of God’s nature and therefore at the heart of what it means to be human.
We need each other. There is something core to the nature of humanity that requires deep relationships. When we try to go solo, we go against the nature of how things are—against the created order.
You will never be what you ought to be without community. There is a very real sense in which ignoring this basic human will make you weird.
I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The characters are incredibly fascinating. There is a very odd character in newest Hobbit movie called Radagast the Brown. He’s straight weird. He travels by a rabbit pulled sleigh. He talks to birds and dresses worse than Lady Gaga.
He’s weird because he’s been living alone in the woods for years. He’s a hermit. He’s ignored the pull of community and he’s ended up weird.
Don’t end up weird. I mean that in the nicest way possible. But there is a serious point here, you were created for relationships. You’ll never be the person God intends for you to be if you try to go solo. You were created in God’s image and God exists in perfect community.
If you want to grow this year, if you want to become the person God created you to be, you need to let people into your life. You need to be honest. You need accountability, laughter, sympathy, conflict and everything else that comes with authentic relationships. Without these things…you’ll be a Radagast.
image from The Hobbit
