And the Two Shall Be One

My wife left for her job training last Wednesday. I flew down to Atlanta to her for the weekend and to attend the wedding. I’ve been back since Sunday; she won’t be back until Friday. In the period of about thirty six hours I’ve already realized how helpless I am without her. I do not mean to imply helpless like I can’t feed myself, but more like I don’t care if I feed myself. Life just seems to be crawling, and everything that made sense a week ago no longer does. My mind keeps reeling over new subjects and topics. I can’t seem to just enjoy being here, enjoy class, or enjoy Duke. I’ve been married for fifteen months today (as corny as that is) but I’ve only just now realized how much marriage completes the purpose of humanity (or at least my humanity).

In this experience I attempted to interpret the second chapter of Genesis and the creation of woman in a different light. “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.” First, it is peculiar that God put Adam to sleep in order to remove the rib for the woman-to-be. For the pre-Fall state of humanity one can only speculate, but it seems logical to assume pain and death had no claim or effect on Adam’s life. Even so, God puts Adam to sleep. Is it possible this sundering of the singular ‘man’ into the plural ‘humans’ would have inflicted much pain if not for God’s anesthetic act? What can we draw from a symbolic and/or literal reading of this verse?

When my wife was at home there was harmony. Now that harmony is absent. Not only am I alone and without someone with which to share such harmony, but the atmosphere of my home feels discordant. Adam lost a part of himself through which his wife became formed. After this occurs, the narrator establishes the role of marriage; it is an act of reconciliation and rejoining. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” As I read this today, I asked, ‘What is the reason?’ Why must they be reunited in marriage as a result of a creative act of God?

This led me to consider the difficult passage of I Corinthians 11:7, “A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.” This verse deserves a book, but here are my thoughts, nevertheless. If Creation is approached holistically, then we notice man was made in the image of God prior to his split and the formation of woman. Then God commands for man and woman to be reunited. What was lost in this act? What was gained? The ache in my soul and the absence of my wife indicate to me what man lost. Though joined in marriage, man always reaches out to be joined back to woman in perfect harmony. In this state exists the image of God. Apart from each other they are a sundered Creation.