"I'm Made from Dust and You're Made from a Rib"

I love the carpool conversations I hear in the afternoons as I play chauffeur to 3 adorable 5 year olds. Today I heard Joshua's friend comment that we were crossing over the "chocolate river." It is actually a bridge over a really yucky stream. Don't you love how children can make something so common seem so imaginative? Then I hear Joshua say  this..."Hey Abby I was made from dust and you were made from a rib. I wonder what kind of bar-b-que sauce Jesus puts on His ribs." The last part made me laugh, but the first part peeked my curiosity. So I asked, "Joshua, what do you mean by I was made from dust and you were made from a rib?" "You know mommy in creation, God created man from the dust of the ground and then He took one of Adam's ribs and made a woman from the rib, so men are dust and women are ribs."  Yeah, I don't know how he knows all of this, but I'm glad he does. He has grasped a concept that it took me many years to understand and that I am still trying to wrap my head around as I struggle to live it out. Genesis 2:21 "So the Lord God cause 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." It does not say that he took the rib and created a woman around it. It says that he took one of the man's ribs (the structure that protects his heart) and made a woman from the rib he had taken and then He brought them together. Women, we were brought together in oneness with our husbands to protect their hearts. That is the purpose of our structure. We are a rib. How often are we the ones who jab at the hearts of our husbands? We know their weakness and their vulnerable places and in the heat of the moment of selfishness and anger we loose sight of the purpose of our structure and instead of protecting their heart, we puncture it. We use careless words that can never be taken back. We belittle and accuse all the while chipping away at the heart of our spouse. We speak negatively or allow others to speak negatively about our spouse. (You want to watch this daughter of the King quickly turn into a dragon...you just say something bad about my husband and I breathe fire!) We have the privelege of protecting our husband's hearts as we pray for them, encourage them, respect them, love them and meet their physical needs. I pray that we as His daughters will embrace our role as a rib and learn to protect the hearts of our husbands.