When man was created, he walked with God in the cool of the day and yet he felt lonely. He could not use his sight or his touch to communicate with Him. The man could only feel God's presence. So everything he wanted was a companion, a complement that make him whole with God in everything.
Marriage symbolizes the union of the female principle (mind) with the male principle (spirit) to bring the transcendent God into the body (the two principles made one), and making God immanent and present, and the two again become one. This is the marriage of spirit and body. This is the end of a separate self.
Then God wanted to please man and made the woman from one of his ribs that He took out of man, formed the woman and brought her to him. And the man said,"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called wo-man, for she was taken out of man. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:23.
God chose the rib, because they were designed to protect man's life. It protects the heart and lungs and supports him, as women are meant to do. The ribs are strong yet delicate and fragile. It provides protection for the most delicate organ in man, his heart. His heart is the center of his being and his lungs hold the sacred breath of life. The rib cage will allow itself to be broken before it will allow damage to man's heart and lungs. The woman was created to support man as the rib cage supports his body.
She was not made from the dust of the ground as God had done for him.
When God formed the male and female animals, He formed them separately, but for the female woman it was different, she was taken from man, and formed as a part of the initial man, symbolizing the complement between one to the other in ruling the universe that God created for them. Man represented the image of God, and the woman represented the emotions. Together they were the totality of God.
While the man was in a divinely induced sleep, the creation of the woman took place in that reality to strengthen and powerfully help the man to subdue the universe already created for them. She was a complement and as an integral part of man, and a powerful and influential companion for him. The man had to lose a rib, but he gained so much more.
God accomplished the act in such a way that it showed woman as a complement to complete man in the integral union of marriage. Woman was created to be beside man, not beneath or above him. For that reason man has to treat his woman well. Love her, respect her, for she is fragile. In hurting her you hurt yourself and God because you are the image of Him. What you do to her you do to God. In crushing her you only damage your own heart, the heart of your father, and the heart of her father. And women has to support man, in humility, show him the power of emotion, in gentleness. and quietness, show your strength, in love show him that you are the rib that protects his inner self.
In God's kingdom there will be neither male or female, nor man and woman, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.
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