Design Flaws?

Scott Adams once said, “Normal people believe that if ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.”

And what a feature-filled creature humanity is. The image-bearer. The imago Dei. Fully capable of reason, emotion, art, economics, facilitating thermonuclear fusion, crocheting and more. Indeed, humanity is the crown of creation. And when God made Adam, He declared such a creature as good.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day (Gen 1:31).

In fact, everything in God’s creation was heralded as good. And as He surveyed the landscape of the universe flowing from his immeasurable wisdom and boundless creativity, He joyfully rested over all that He made.

Just a few short verses later though, careful readers are going to experience some apparent dissonance. Adam, serving as caretaker and administrator of the Garden, began to fulfill his duty to his King. He noted a unique problem though, there was no one like him though in creation. Yahweh saw this too.

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (Gen 2:18).

At one moment creation was deemed good. Even very good after humanity hits the scene. Sometime later though God himself stated that there was an area of creation where goodness was lacking. Could it be because there were unforeseen circumstances in creating such a complex creature? Was there a breakdown in the system? Hardly. The only reasonable explanation is that humanity is necessarily needy. One of the necessities of being a flesh-and-blood, limited, created thing like you and me is that we have needs.

All of this is revealed before the Fall. The Garden was a place for humanity to bear their needs openly and freely to each other and to God without fear of attack or abandonment. It was only after the Fall that we see needs exploited. Weakness, need, necessity—all of this is a part of us. It is ingrained into us. Always craving, always needing, always yearning for something. In Adam’s case, it was a helper that was like him. A significant way in which God deals with our needs is not by removing them. It is by meeting them.

What is a takeaway? There are several. First, weakness does not equal sinfulness. Need does not equal selfishness. In fact, being in a place of need has been a part of God’s good design since the Garden. Humanity received its form from God. Humanity received its first breath from God. Humanity received its assignment from God. And humanity received its first relationships from God. To be human is to be lovingly conditional, contingent, and dependent.

Second, God in Christ is working to reclaim and restore all things. This would also include humanity who has suffered under the curse of the Fall. That does not mean, however, that healing and health will expiate all weakness and need from our lives. Strength may come as we build upon healthy habits. Hope becomes concrete in our hearts as we trust in Christ’s work and the Spirit’s power. We will always be in need though.

Three, relationships are one of the most fundamental needs that we have. Chip Dodd’s Voice of the Heart dives into the truth about loneliness. The greatest gift that loneliness offers is the gift of intimacy with others. Do not reject and attempt to eschew needs from your life. Especially that of wise, gentle, loving friends. Instead, see them as God sees them in your life—very good.