There’s something quite beautiful about the account of Eve’s creation. God sees that the man He has made is incomplete, and so He gives man a variety of creatures to rule over. He brings before the man the beasts of the fields and the birds of the air, and the man stewards them. He names them and takes charge over them. But this is not enough to solve incompleteness.
God, of course, knew this all along. But He wants us to know it, which is why He has Adam go through this liturgy with the animals before He solves the problem, anesthetizing Adam with His mercy and forming for him a partner, a helper, a wife from His wounded yet healed side. Adam awakes and learns an important theological lesson: Ruling someone doesn’t cure your loneliness. Belonging to someone does.
So in the creation of Eve, God was teaching Adam about the nature of the Triune God. The Father loves the Son not because He rules over the Son but because He is one with Him. The Spirit loves the Father and Son not because they do His bidding but because He proceeds from them. The three persons of the Trinity love each other because they belong to each other.
And in the same way, through the creation of Eve, God was teaching Adam and us about the nature of His love. Are we God’s servants? Certainly. Should we seek to glorify the Lord who has authority over us in all that we say and do? Absolutely. But at the same time, God was still glorious without us and He did not create us because He needed or wanted flesh covered glory-production factories. God did not create us because He wanted tools. The Divine Bridegroom created us because He wanted a bride to cherish and love.
Certainly, God was not lonely in the sense that Adam was. He wasn’t incomplete. But still, God could not rest until He had drawn you to His side forever. He could not rest until you belonged to Him and were resting in His forgiveness, His salvation, His peace and eternal mercy. He could not rest until He had won you and cleansed you in Christ’s bloody death and glorious resurrection.
And so, in order to give His Son the wife that would give Him eternal joy, God put His Son into the deep sleep of death. And from His wounded yet healed side, God formed the church and the two became one flesh. The creation of Eve is a profound mystery, and I am saying it refers to Christ and His Church. It refers to Christ and His eternal, undying love for you.
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