God Made a Woman

“And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman

and brought her to the man.”

Genesis 2: 22 (New Revised Standard Version)

God Made a Woman is a mid-tempo ballad performed by Jerrod Niemann that pays tribute to the romantic influence a woman has in a man’s life. Written by three of his friends in the country music industry, Niemann says that this song has a powerful message for all men who are lucky enough to have a girl that makes them a better person. As children, we explore and learn about the great wonders of the world. Once a boy becomes a man, says Niemann, he discovers that the greatest wonder of all – indeed God’s greatest gift – is the love of a woman; “I was searching for something I didn’t even know I was after. Then God made a woman fall for a man. Didn’t have much going, but his life began when she took his hand.”

The great narrative of the Bible begins with a dramatic flash – God formed the heavens and the earth from nothing more than the authority of God’s spoken word. Then, God made man. The wonders continue. God leaned down from heaven and “breathed” God’s own breath into the lungs of the man; the man inhaled deeply and his life began. That had not been done with any other living creature God made. Even now, God’s creative powers did not rest.  God made a woman from a rib God took from the man “and brought her to the man.” At that moment, this country ballad declares, “The sky turned blue, the clouds parted, light shined on a lonely heart. When God made a woman.”

Located here in this extraordinary book of the Bible is a grand declaration. God looks upon the man that God created and noticed that man was alone. And God mutters to himself, “It is not good that the man should be alone. (Genesis 2:18)” God was not enough. Man needed more – more than just a relationship with his creator. In God’s wisdom, love and concern for man, God recognized that man needed a partner to be complete, someone with whom there could be intimacy. “He (God) made the moon, he made the sun. But to me the best thing he’s ever done. God made a woman.”

As this beautiful narrative continues into a third chapter, brokenness abruptly breaks into God’s good creation – a brokenness that continues to touch all of life today. For some, the beautiful union and intimacy of two people is disrupted, by death, by betrayal or divorce. Others never find someone with whom to enter that deep intimacy God intended. The garden where everything was once whole is overrun with the weeds of human desire to live without God. It is here that the drama of God’s work takes a fresh – and undeserved – direction. Man and woman may, at times, walk away from God but God refuses to let us go. The remainder of the Bible is that story – the story of a God that relentlessly pursues us, desiring to work healing in the broken places. We should not be surprised. For we have seen God’s character, “When God made a woman. Yeah, yeah. God made a woman.”

Joy,