The Right Companion — A LifeWords Devotion

Aloneness was the first thing God reckoned was “not good” in his creation. All else was “good”, but a solitary human being was not to be tolerated. So God didn’t just create a male, he created a female. The female was not some sort of afterthought, not a cringing servant of the male, though this has become sadly the case in human history.

The female was to be a companion who would fill out human creation. A world comprising just males or just females was not the world God intended. Male and female needed each other to fulfil their true humanity. So the way male and female relate shapes our experience of humanity.

If there is arrogant domination on either part, then we are less than human. If there is constant conflict and a quest for power, we forfeit our full humanity. Some believe in a certain ordering of gender relationships. Such ordering has to be part of an acceptance of the equality and dignity of male and female.

And one other thing: the companionship of male and female is not summed up in marriage, as if an unmarried person is less than human. We are less than human if we forsake or distort relationships with the opposite sex. If we remain single, we still express our true humanity by maintaining wise and loving relationships between men and women. After all, Jesus was truly human but single. And he expressed his true humanity in his wise and loving relationships with women.

Blessings,