One of my favorite stories from the book of Genesis & one of the best insights into what God thinks of our human need for connection is found in Genesis 2. At that point, God was all but finished with His creation. Genesis 1 reveals that God spoke & there was light. Light. Heaven. Stars. Sky. Waters. Earth. Plants. Flowers. Trees. Creatures of every sort: sea, land, & air. And finally, He formed man, Adam, out of the clay of the ground, and breathed His own breath into his nostrils. This man He created in His own image (a reflection of who God is & what He’s like, that points to & gives glory to Him.) And it was good.

And yet, even before sin, God noticed that there was something that was NOT good. Every animal, bird, & living creature had a partner. A companion to walk (or swim or fly) through life with them. Every living creature except for Adam. And it was NOT good. So He fixed it.

God caused Adam to go into a deep sleep, & made a woman, Eve. Adam recognized that something which had been missing, something that was fundamental to the human experience (& to reflect God’s glory,) had been fixed.

Now, to me, this isn’t merely a story about marriage or the relationship between men & women. Throughout the scriptures, we see that we are created to be in significant, meaningful relationships, & that one of the results of the fall of humanity into sin was broken relationships.

Jesus came to bring humanity life in all of its fullness, & as a local church family, Hillside is committed to nurturing an environment where significant connected relationships can develop, grow & mature, so that we are able to reflect God’s glory & to show that He exists by how we love one another.