A Suitable Helper...

So here we are at January 3rd...and I have been a bit overwhelmed by all the little details in the Old Testament that I tend to overlook.  I have no idea how many times I have read through Genesis...through the creation story and Adam and Eve...but for some reason this time these words jumped off the page, "It is not good for the man to be alone:  I will make him a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18   Actually, what really turned my head...and actually made me laugh out loud was the next sentence...
"And out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky..."
Genesis 2:19

Why did God do THAT?  Why the animals first...instead of the woman?  Isn't that kind of...funny?

Or was Adam a lot like my dear hubby?  He needs to spend a lot of time thinking over things.  He reflects and dwells and prays and just....really takes his time...needing to be....convinced.  I wonder if Adam was the same way?  He needed to take a good look around, check out his options, and really reflect on what would be best.  God gave Adam the time to understand what he really...needed.
"And the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for him."  Genesis 2: 20.  So Adam spent all this time naming the animals.  Looked them over, thought about how they were created, and named EVERY single one.

I know I have read all this before.  Just really never took notice of the...sequence of events.

So Adam was not content.  He still was without... a HELPER.  For some reason I seem to automatically pop the word..."partner"...in there instead. 

It's not quite the same thing, is it?

So God did His thing.  Adam was quite pleased.  So proud of his new helper...
"This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh:
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man." Genesis 2:23

It was really important that she was a part of him..."like" him.  Of the same, shall we say, make and model. 

"For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall become one flesh."  Genesis 2:24

Check this out...  the cleaving is done by the man. 
He cleaves to her. 
He needs her. 
The verse actually says, "they shall become one flesh."  He cannot live without her. 

What a humbling, breathtaking, overwhelming thought.  

Adam was not happy with just hanging with the animals.  He needed someone "like" him.  Someone he was excited about, someone he was proud of!

Someone that was of the same flesh and bone...
Someone who...
...yes...

"completed" him.