Genesis Diaries: Genesis 1:27

And now we come to the first contentious part of the Bible.  Well, at least this is true in modern times.  To be fair the idea of God literally creating the universe, literally creating each living thing with words from His mouth is fairly controversial.  But the idea of God creating us as Male and Female on purpose, this has profound implications for the current state of discourse not only for Humanity, but for the Church.

Why does taking the Bible literally about creation matter at all?

I’ve spent decades asking myself this question, and I’ve found that it does matter.  Now, I don’t mean whether it took 6 days or 6 billion years.  That we can slide around a bit on.  To say that we believe that God created things a specific way with a specific purpose and a specific desire is to infuse all of creation with meaning.  All things then are precious in His sight from the grass to the lily, to the tree, to the sparrow, to the Human.  It all matters and every act we take is in its very essence a spiritual/mystical act.  What we do, who we are, and what we love all matters. 

Imagine for a moment the aloe plant.  Here is a plant that dwells in climates that are hot and dry.  And what does it do?  In the place where sunburns would be a very likely occurrence for humans, it soothes the irritated skin.

Now, there are two ways to look at that.  

One is to say all of existence is just an accident.  The world is just lucky dirt and isn’t it lucky we found something in the environment that we might be able to use for an issue that humans might have in that environment?  We can’t expect that to be true or depend on any laws of nature.  It’s all random, but isn’t it nice? 

The other viewpoint is that God created the universe with reason and purpose behind everything that exists.  Every plant is beneficial for Humankind in some manner.  Nothing is wasted.  Everything is useable and everything is beneficial in some manner.  Cures for thousands of ailments have been found in the oddest of places.  Remember when we once believed that the human appendix didn’t have a purpose?  We believed it was useless.  Someone with the belief that everything has a purpose keep digging, and it turns out that the appendix has quite a lot to do between our immune system and being a repository of healthy gut bacteria.

One viewpoint is overwhelmed with hope and meaning. One viewpoint is overwhelmed with insignificance and pointlessness unto death.  Quite literally it leads to a logical end point of suicide.  

When we look out our window we are looking at a literally enchanted world.  It has been touched by the supernatural; infused with divine purpose, meaning, and above all else the conditions for abundant life.  Abundant life is something our God is absolutely obsessed with.

Therefore, how God made humans is not a mistake.  He made them in HIS image, HIS likeness, and one of those ways was as male and female.  In every man and woman there is the likeness of God.  He took all of His attributes and placed them in stronger emphasis in men and women.  Anyone who says that women and men are exactly the same denies the Bible and denies science.  We are created fundamentally differently to compliment one with the other.  Can my wife get aggressive? Yes, but it is a fundamentally different form of aggression than how I get aggressive.  Am I caring and nurturing? Yes, but it is a fundamentally different form of nurturing and caring than my wife gives.  Modern politics and science would like us to believe that a child doesn’t need both a mother and a father, that couples of the same sex are just as valid as those of opposite sexes, and that what one’s gender is can be solved with medication and the flick of a knife.  However, God’s word, God’s plan, time after time gets proven out and I don’t doubt that it will be in decades to come in these areas as well.

I’m old enough to remember a time when some of the most horrible advice was given to parents by “medical” and psychological professionals.  When I was born my mother clearly remembers being given a shot by nurses to dry up her milk production.  Why?  Because experts believed that formula was far better than silly old, primitive breast milk.  In later decades it was revealed that it is very psychologically important. Imprinting, bonding, and affection goes on not just in the feeding of the child but the warmth, and physical contact necessary in the feeding.  Medical professionals discovered that the breast milk changes its nutrient and hormone with the physical development of the child.  Not long before, it was believed by child psychologists that giving children any form of affection at any time was detrimental to their psychological development.  We’d be horrified by such an idea.  I remember in the 80’s porn was declared by the APA and so-called “sexologists” to be perfectly ok, and natural to engage with, that God and the church were just trying to keep everyone from having fun.  The prudes.  And now we call it a central component of “rape culture” and especially damaging to young men.

Over time, all things prove God out.  This is also true with the relationship between a man and a woman.

One can look to evolution and find rationale and permission to commit to a homosexual relationship or support for the belief that one was accidentally put into the wrong body.  One cannot, however, find this in the Bible.  

We have a God who created all things perfectly, according to His specifications, establishing relationships between the land and the animals, between humans and animals, and finally between both genders of humans.  He takes half of His essence and makes man a copy of that.  He takes the other half of His essential nature and replicates it in women.  And then they give them the first commandment.  Without a covenant, without an “if/then” statement, the commandment is “Be fruitful and multiply”.  He has given us two halves of a whole and told us to make more.  This most fundamental of mandates cannot be accomplished in a homosexual relationship.  If we are Christians then we would be hard pressed to find support for anything other than that God has created us in the body we are meant to be in.  It has purpose and meaning beyond our immediate struggle or discomfort.

Just as there are some things that can be experienced between parents and their biological children but not between parents and adopted children, I believe the same holds true for heterosexual couples.  And beyond simply heterosexual couples there are levels and deep beauty that cannot be experienced outside of longterm, heterosexual, monogamous, christian couples.  Every level and layer of life and abundance as God nurtures full Shalom in our lives is immensely precious.  We degrade it and minimize it at our own peril.  Why does Jesus say that what God has brought together let no man put asunder?  The reasons are countless.  But primarily because it is what God has brought together; what He chose, how He ordered it.  Man and woman.

This is the first place where we act as His image in the world. Do we choose to follow Him or follow our own desires? Do we bring blessing to the world and those around us? Or withhold it?

Do we believe in His intention, His purpose, or lucky dirt?

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