Living in the Spirit

September 28, 2021

Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:18-24

Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’ So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,
‘This at last is bone of my bones
this one shall be called Woman,
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

As quoted from the NRSV Bible, the word partner used here is more accurately translated from the Hebrew as helper*. NRSV leans more toward equality of responsibility, which the word helper may no longer possess. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a helper as a relatively unskilled worker who assists another, especially by manual labor. As I look back on my life, I realize that I grew up in a very egalitarian environment. Everyone was expected to do their part based on the skills they possessed. At the age of five, I gathered eggs and feed chickens, my sister and mother worked in the garden, my dad was driving a tracker baling hay, while my brother, balancing on a moving sled, became strong as an ox sledding hay bales as they popped out of the bale. I could not lift a bail of hay, much less stack it in a perfect square cube as high as my arms could reach. My over-sensitive sinuses precluded me from doing much in the garden, and my sister was afraid of chickens. Our tasks changed as we aged, and progress introduced milking machine and round hay bales. I cringed when I read the derogatory words, unskilled worker. No job in the world does not require some level of expertise.

Recognizing the worth and skills of every person is essential for our attaining the goal of building a world where everyone has enough for the necessities of life. That is important in every aspect of life and never more important than in marriage and families with children.

Prayer: Lord, help us redefine the cultural values that allow us to overvalue some things while undervaluing others. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5828.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.