Why Was Adam Mutilated?

I never thought to ask this question but someone else asked and it has been rolling around in my head since:

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

Genesis 2:20-21

So why? Why go through the trouble of creating woman in a completely different way than man and everything else in the universe up to this point? Why create a being in the image and likeness of God, then cause him to fall into a deep sleep as though dead, pierce his side and from the otherwise mortal wound in his flesh create new life? Why does God then lead the new creation to her lover, now risen from his deep death-like slumber, so that they can become one flesh again; that is so that the woman can physically receive the body and flesh of the one she was created from and for into herself in an act of communion and love which then brings about even more life until it fills the world?

God has revealed Himself in so many diverse ways, it is absolutely astonishing. What I find fascinating is that when Eve came into existence she was apart from Adam and had to be led to him by God. In some ways I feel like I have found Christ and know Him and in other ways I feel like I am still being led to Him by God.

Thank you Lord for your patience in my meandering pursuit. Keep me from evil and led me to everlasting life, which is life joined to you.

Heart Strings

Sometimes one hears or reads a verse and that verse carries with it a certain significance or meaning. For years that verse can retain that meaning until one day you suddenly see it in a different light.

Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4:23

This verse carried with it a dating significance for me and the meaning was to guard my heart against heartbreak. But heartbreak does not stop up the "wellspring of life."

The heart is very significant to God. The Bible contains 743 references to it. The Lord we serve is one who searches both the mind and the heart. Before we ever confess with our lips, we first confess in our heart. The words that we speak overflow from our hearts. Our hearts ultimately find their rest in God and are restless until they do.

And yet our hearts can be hardened against God. Unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, etc. can take root like weeds in fertile soil to choke out the blossoming seed. Christ came to establish a new convent in which our darkened hearts, hardened like stones, could be replaced with hearts of flesh. I know that somehow my fellowship with God is intimately intertwined with the condition of my heart. God, who is greater than our hearts, has rescued us by pouring love into our hearts and leaving us a lasting peace as inheritance to guard our hearts before the day judgment. Rejoicing in the goodness of God and resting in the peace from Him which surpasses all understanding safeguards the wellspring of life so that life can be lived abundantly by pursuing Him who first pursued us and walking in the good works for which we were created and which have been laid out before us. Failing to guard our hearts against the snares of the world, like Adam failed to guard the garden, blocks the blessings of God and darkens our knowledge of Him. It stops up the wellspring of life.

The difference between my first understanding and my second is that the first retrains love for fear of pain while the second deepens loves in the hope of the glory secure in the knowledge that nothing in heaven or earth can separate me from the love that is in Christ poured out for me. Perhaps both understandings are true, but I now realize that "guarding my heart" can mean loving recklessly just as much as it can mean dealing cautiously with the world.