Read Genesis 2:18-20- 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. 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. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

Let me point out, this is a narrative, an ancient explanation of how they understood God, creation, and the role they played in creation. We CANNOT look at Genesis 2 in chronological order to Genesis 1; that’s not the intention.

We already noted that in Genesis 1, notice Genesis 1:27-28a says, 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

In Genesis 1 we already see that God created humanity, male and female, in his image, that we are a reflection of the image of God. We talked about how God was one, singular, but yet had three parts (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) or a plurality of effect.

The author is getting our attention in a similar way. Because we are created in the image of God, it is not good to be alone, or let me say this way, lone is not tov. Being singular, alone, independent of others is not good, not tov, not the way we were designed to function.

The lone one cannot do what God called them to do. The intention of the divine is to live in His image, be a blessing, multiply and give life. That cannot be done alone, only with others. Yes, we are singular, but we need to function with another.

Community is not one but two. Community is “withness”.

“Withness”, yes, I know, it’s not a real word, being with is you being an individual, your uniqueness, quirks, gifts, blessings of giving life, but with someone else to mirror the image of God.