Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.”  So the LORD God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found as his complement.  So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place.  Then the LORD God made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.  And the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called ’woman,’ for she was taken from man.” ~ Genesis 2:18-23

You have just read the original Sleeping Beauty tale.  Yes, that’s right.  The first Sleeping Beloved is the first human ever created: the man, Adam.  This story is special – it occurs before the Fall of mankind.  It shows the ideal Sleeping Beloved, where there are no curses, only blessings.  What is taken is done in love, without pain, and is immediately returned seven-fold.

Yet within it are woven the themes that haunt the Sleeping Beauty tale: an appointed task, a deep sleep, the awakening, and the finding of love…

God’s Story

This first story – the real story – begins with an observation: the man is alone, and should have a “helper.”  This is not a new realization for God; He had always intended to create the woman.  But remember: it’s a perfect world, and the man doesn’t realize his alone-ness.  God does, and He wants Adam to recognize it, too.  So God has the man go about his divinely-appointed task of having dominion over the animals (Gen. 1:28).  After naming them, the man realizes there is nothing else quite like him. 

God then sets out to fulfill the longing He inspired: He causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep.  He then takes a rib from the man, and creates a lovely bride.  God brings the woman to the man – His gift, a beloved for His Beloved – and the man awakes!  Did his heart sense he was not alone anymore?  Or had he been awake for some time, wondering why he’d been asleep?  We won’t know the answer this side of heaven, but we can feel Adam’s tender love for his beloved as he speaks!  

Our Stories

In our stories, the girl does her earthly-appointed task (i.e. weaving), resulting in a deep sleep from which only love can awaken her.  The difference is that we have the knowledge of evil.  Our stories take place in a fallen and broken world.  The sleep is always a curse.  Our Sleeping Beloved suffers.  If anything is taken from her, it is done so out of selfishness and evil, not out of love.

But we also have the knowledge of good.  We know love can and will save the day, even if evil does come.  Our idea of how this should look has changed over the centuries, but this fact remains true for our Sleeping Beloved: love awakens the heart.


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