I love this “hands-on” account of the creation of humanity. In Genesis 1, we read how God brought forth everything by the creative authority of his Word. In Genesis 2, we see the tender, personal interaction between the Creator and his image bearers. This version is “anthropomorphic,” showing God who is eternal spirit in terms descriptive of how a human would act. Therefore, some might say this account is primitive and merely metaphorical. But that would be to miss its profound depths. A metaphor is always meant to show something real through comparison. We take in its word pictures in all their evocative specificity to receive an understanding of what they point to. If we try on these verses according to their own terms, we will experience how they take us to some intimate truths about our Creator. We will discover how rich, how deep and how true these words are. Let’s look closely at a few threads.

 

Personal Engagement. We witness the LORD God creating the first man with personal shaping. In God’s “hands,” Adam was made from the stuff of earth. But that’s not all. How intimate is the picture of God’s breathing his own breath into the man’s nostrils! When we recall that the Hebrew word for “breath” is the same word for “spirit,” we feel the intended communion. God’s own personal Spirit brings the physical body to life. We live as God’s image by his breath, his very Spirit, respiring within us. 

 

Participation Planned. Genesis visualizes the LORD as the great Gardener who prepared Eden for his supreme creation. With an artist’s anticipation of showing his beloved his work, God takes the man—how? By the hand. In his own divine hand! He places Adam in the Garden as a participant in its shaping and growth as if to say, “Here, I created all this out of nothing, but I left some work for you to do. I want you to bring your mind and creative spirit to bear through your hands and muscles to tend this creation over which I have placed you.”

 

Then, in a playful, touching scene, the LORD of all fashions the animals and shows them one by one to the man: “Take a look. Give each a name, and I will call it by that name too.” We cannot create out of nothing. But our God made us to participate with him in ordering all life.

 

Communion Completes Us. The very life of the triune God is a communion of love. Father, Son and Spirit ever dance in and out of one another. Creation came from the overflow of this love. Thus, God made his image bearers for relationships of love with him and one another. Again, we see deep intimacy and direct involvement as the LORD takes a rib from Adam to form the woman. The word translated here as “helper” means one called alongside to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. To fully be who we were made to be, we need to be in relationship with others. In the beginning, nothing stood between the man and the woman. They were completely exposed to one another. All was known and no shame provoked hiding. 

 

To Be With Us Directly. Nothing stood between our first parents and the Creator. Eden was made to be a meeting place between God and humanity. The LORD withdrew enough of his radiant omnipotence that his creation could meet with him directly without being destroyed. Scripture has always portrayed the one true God as being mighty enough to create all things yet tender enough to relate personally and truly to his creation. He accommodates himself to our frailty and does not chide us for our limitations. In the beginning, God dwelt among his people.

 

Daily Meeting. Finally, and sadly, we learn so much about what was intended just as all was lost. Scripture tells us that after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, the LORD came walking in the Garden in the cool of the evening. We get the sense that this was part of the rhythm of life in Eden. God did not beat down upon the man and woman with a constant, inescapable, overwhelming presence. He withdrew so that they could enjoy and tend the Garden. At the end of the day, he walked to them. That is, God accommodated himself to a form that was recognizable and relatable to them. He came to be with them. The Garden was a temple, a meeting place between God and humanity. That has always been the plan!