Sorry ...This is NOT PART 2

Okay, so this is not Part 2 of the story I told at Church October 11. Don't worry it is just postponed, not canceled. Someone emailed me and asked me to write a little about what I am doing here.
Without further ado...well that church we prayed I would be sent to, well I was sent to exactly the right one! It might not say Church of Christ on the sign [but we all know I don't care what the sign says], but they do serve weekly communion [something quite frankly I thought I was going to need to sacrifice while I was out here], so Chi-Ching [this is a prize winning sound]! I feel truly blessed by The Lord for HIS SPIRIT leading me to this church! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH GOD!!!
If you want to know who I am worshipping with, their web address is http://www.ikonsf.com
Last Sunday was the first I got to attend because of family and health reasons. But I do want to tell you what we are studying and the notes I wrote after the sermon [which they call a "conversation", Ha Ha, joke's on me, they should have said something like Today's "message" or "thoughts" because to me "Conversation" means giving you my input vocally during the "conversation"]....
From the NIV Genesis [all emphasises are mine] chapter 2, verse 15 and following...
v.15 THE LORD GOD took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
v.16 And The LORD GOD commanded the man, “You are free to eat of any tree in the garden;
v.17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
My Thoughts on the “When”
“When”? I was always taught, “If.” But “when” shows GOD'S protective nature, HIS earliest longings to save us, mostly from ourselves, from the horror that is death. “When” also reflects that the Power of The LORD includes the power to give life and to take it away. The mere fact that this word "when" [or rather its language equivalent] was told throughout the whole of Hebrew oral history and later included in Holy Scripture practically screams “THIS IS A LORD UNLIKE ANY OTHER.” Continuing...
v.18 THE LORD GOD said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
v.19 Now The LORD GOD had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. HE brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
v.20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
v.21 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. [Do you ever wonder if a scar was left behind?]
v.22 Then The LORD GOD made a woman from the rib HE had taken out of the man, and HE brought her to the man.
v.23 The man said,/"This is now bone of my bones/and flesh of my flesh;/she shall be called 'woman,'/for she was taken out of man."
v.24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
v.25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
My Thoughts on This Chapter [or Section of the Chapter]
GOD made Adam from dirt [it might say 'dust' or 'ground' or 'earth,' but basically dirt].
Then HE made all of the rest of the creatures, big and small, from the same dirt but HE realizes that none of them was a suitable mate for Adam?
If we presume that all of those creatures were made from the exact same dirt as Adam, none were suitable for him?
Well, what made the difference? What about the fact The LORD HIMSELF breathed into Adam's nostril to give him life, is it the difference? Or did woman [watch: “Rob Bell: Everything Is Spiritual”] need to be formed from Adam's rib in order that the instincts or the emotions to care for and protect would arise from him? Or was it a different instinct that needed to be brought forth? Maybe man had to learn to share his heart and everything else that is within him? Did Eve need to know how she was made in order that she might find the things named above within herself? Was it necessary for man and woman to have this physical connection for the “leaving” & the “cleaving” to really take place?
Or did Adam need a sense of loss of self to desire intimacy with Eve, made from a part of his body? Was it Plato who wrote about belly-buttons enabling the Perfect Mate to be found? C.S. Lewis wrote about a GOD-shaped hole in every heart that humans try to fill with all kinds of things: drugs, money, sex, you get the idea. But The Only TRUE Plug for that shape is GOD. But what if Lewis got the idea, and forgot to add the “twist”? [Isn't there always a twist in every good story in/of the human experience?] If we imagine that Lewis's puzzle piece, the one he theorized about, as being in the cookie cutter shape of a person, could maybe a toe [or even the toenail] have to be filled with a mate? Could the “plug” or the “rib” be a euphemism for the sense of connectivity and responsibility I feel [and should rightfully feel] for those I love, including the last generation [and back and back and back], my generation, and the next generation [and the next and next and next], as far as I or any Christian can reach up or down through history? As a Christian I do feel this connection and this responsibility for all people and I do desire for each of them to fill their GOD-shaped hole with The ONE TRUE GOD. Is this the connection which The LORD desired for us when HE made us, male and female? Is the ability to reconnect to/with each other, one of the points of the Salvation by our GOD, WHO sits upon HIS throne...purpose and unity? For us to declare it AND live it?
How will we know? Can we know?
Postscript:
This Sunday Aaron [ikon's minister] examined this second section of Genesis I wrote about above. He pointed out something that I like to think would have eventually blossomed for me out of my own questioning and faith process. His point was:
Part of our [meaning males and females] vulnerability and intimacy to each other and to GOD comes from the creation as a whole. Then taking the idea even further... the restoration of that ability [to be vulnerable and intimate with one another] is one of the reasons The LORD JESUS CHRIST, GOD-INCARNATE poured HIMSELF out for us, to reconnect us, to allow us to expose the gooey center that is our soul.
And all GOD'S People said, "Amen?"
Amen! The point of being part of the Body of CHRIST is to be a people that when non-believers look at us, "They will know we are Christians by our love." For me, I cannot love another person if I don't give him/her a piece, however tiny, of my gooey center. I just cannot do it. And I don't want to...love you that is without giving you a space on my soft underbelly [think armadillo] on which to write your name. CHRIST called us to be gentle as doves and shrewed as serpents. If I have not been gentle with you and I profess to love you, my deepest & most sincere apologies. I commit to begin anew on how I will show you I love you. We ARE new every morning. My heart IS once again open for business. Please take out your pen and rewrite [or write for the first time] your name.
More to come...