Everything hinges on this moment: WALL-E’s encounter with Eve. Before this, WALL-E’s life is, well, stagnant, plain, boring, and lonely. His sole purpose being: make cubes of garbage. Then he meets Eve. After this encounter with Eve (aptly named; well done, Pixar!), his world flips: there’s now community, purpose, reason, love, and a bunch of infatuation. Everything changes for WALL-E. He’s drawn out of himself and toward another; so much so that he is willing to venture into the wild unknown for her.
“’It is not good that the man should be alone.’” In Adam’s isolation and loneliness, he was neither a good image nor a good goal of creation (Gen 2:18), “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him” (emphasis mine). Karl Barth writes that Adam’s isolation and loneliness were not good because God, Himself, is not in isolation but is in community as the
Trinity; and, because God will deal with both male and female in history, not solely with the male alone (III/i 289-90, emphasis mine). Thus, Adam’s completeness—the alleviation of his loneliness and isolation—and his relationship with God hinged on an other. An other similar yet different; some thing like him but not him.
Enter Eve. It was only in the presence of woman that man could feel the comfort of familiarity and the mystery of difference—the animals were all too different, there was no point of intersection for relation. “Everything aims at the one fact… that God did not create man alone, as a single human being, but in the [dissimilar] duality of male and female” (Barth III/i 288). He was drawn out of himself and toward God by her similar and different presence. Her creation was from him, but he had nothing to do with it. She made his heart thump with joy and love and a lot of curiosity. Her presence caused his reality to alter. Her presence created community; a community God would enter into relationship with (as noted above). As it was then, so it is now–community is comprised of both men and women. Thus, in any setting the i
mage of God is fulfilled within the communion (communing) of both sexes together.
“’This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…’” She is his helper1 not because Adam’s laundry was building up or because his house a mess; there was none of this in the Garden. She is his helper because she can do the one thing that he could not do for himself (nor could any animal do for him): save him from isolation and loneliness. “The whole story aims at this exclamation by man. In this…alone, the creative work of God reaches its goal, for only now has man really been given the necessary help designed by God” (Barth III/i 291; emphasis, mine). Thus, man exclaims and proclaims “Thou!” to his I.
The completion of all creation described here, i.e., the completion of man by the creation of woman, is not only one secret but the secret, the heart of all the secrets of God the Creator. The whole inner basis of creation, God’s whole covenant with man…is prefigured in this event, in the completing of man’s emergence by the coming of woman to man (III/i 294).
It is here, in this outstanding moment—looking on as Adam embraces Eve and she receives him—where we see the faint outline of the Cross. Once again, humanity will be isolated and alone, separated from God; and, once again, God will do the one thing we couldn’t do: save us.
She smiles, a welcoming invitation to him and only to him. His arms embrace her as his eyes had done moments earlier. She relaxes under his pressure and returns his embrace with one of her own. The others stare at this man and woman fused—with jealousy, disgust, or hope. He whispers to her, “‘This one at last Is bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh’…‘You surpass them all.’”
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4 responses to “"Are you there, Jesus? It’s me, Woman": Creation”
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1“Helpmeet” is best rendered in modern language as man’s “partner.” However, this synonymous exchange leaves us lacking a clear understanding of what it means to be a “partner” because it can bring to mind images of business arrangements rather than images of oneness. Let’s push the definition of “helpmeet” further towards “helper.” The helpmeet, the “helper” to man would not only alleviate his loneliness, thus being a partner to him (Gen. 2:18), but would also facilitate God’s entering into relationship with him—with them as one. The Hebrew word for “helper” (ezer) used in Genesis 2 about woman is the same word of God in the book of Genesis, Exodus, and Psalms (18:4; Ps. 20:2, 30:20, 54:4, 70:5, 86:17 and 145:5; and, in the verbal form in Gen. 49:25). “God’s ministry of help is described in connection with action words indicating great strength. Being a helper is neither a lesser role nor a weaker role” (Hunt and Hutcheson 29). In fact, if we devalue the aspect of helper in the creation of woman, we also devalue the aspect of helper in God (Hunt and Hutcheson 28). Woman helps man because man could not commune with God without her. To define a helper as subordinate or inferior is a disservice to the creation of woman, and, in the process, relegates her to an inferior position to man. Her position has always been alongside man, ruling God’s earth as His co-vice-regents and acting as His ambassadors, until the Fall; it was only then that her position was consigned to a subordinate position.
This is brilliant! Thank you Lauren 🙂
Lauren, this is truly wonderful. Thank you.
Nice post.
You may also be interested in reading my latest, which, in measure, overlaps…
http://wwwjustifiedsinner.blogspot.com/
(Title: Beyond an immediate pretense).