The box arrived just a few days before February 14. It was my senior year of university. The return address on the brown box read Angwin, California. Taking the stairway steps two at a time, I entered my third-floor dorm room at Andrews University. As I opened the flaps, I dug through the packing popcorn (real popcorn!) to the contents. Homemade cookies. A little chain with her name attached, along with a picture. And best of all, the card signed, “Love, Jennifer.” It’s been over 45 years since that box arrived, yet I still remember that feeling of happiness. I didn’t appreciate at the time that this joyful experience was designed into the very cells of my being by our Creator.
Neuroscience—the study of how our brains function—has discovered over the decades the brain’s amazing complexity. The connections between the billions and billions of brain cells make us into the people we are. Our personalities, reactions to the world around us, and—most importantly for our focus here—the social relationships we need to fully flourish as people are formed at the cellular level. Among the many insights of brain science is the evidence that human beings are mentally hard-wired for relationships.1
Through Adam, all generations are endowed with the God-designed architecture to reflect His love, servanthood, and grace as stewards of this newly created world.
As Christians, we believe that the pinnacle of God’s work in Genesis was His creation of man and woman. Unlike the rest of life on earth, which was spoken into existence by the word of God, humanity came to be by a different process. Kneeling in the soil, our Creator fashioned with His own hands the physique and form of Adam. From the cellular level outwards, the human frame was exquisitely designed. Yet at this stage it was an unconscious and lifeless body.
God then acted in a manner unlike any of the other days of Creation. “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7; emphasis added).2 In uniting the body and brain formed from earth with His creative life force, God brought into existence the conscious being, Adam. This new being contained all the marvelous potentiality to reflect the love that God embedded throughout the rest of Creation. The incredible dynamism of humanity is revealed in the divine dialogue: “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26; emphasis added). Through Adam, all generations are endowed with the God-designed architecture to reflect His love, servanthood, and grace as stewards of this newly created world.
Embedded in those newly activated networked neurons was a yearning for relationships. This was first directed toward Adam’s Creator. The love born in the heart of God found a willing answer in the mind of the man. Together they explored the Garden’s fresh wonders. Soon a further dimension awakened within Adam as he named each pair of animals: to know and be known by another like himself. His Divine Friend knew this and declared, “‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’” (Genesis 2:18). The newly created first couple then enjoyed their first Sabbath with God.
Could we intentionally create more opportunities in our churches for the divinely implanted need for relationships to be nurtured and grown?
As Seventh-day Adventists, we embrace the calling of being God’s remnant Church (Revelation 14:12; 19:10). We center this identity on our Bible teaching paired with practical ministry representing the character of Jesus. But is there more? Could we intentionally create more opportunities in our churches for the divinely implanted need for relationships to be nurtured and grown? Hebrews 10:24-25 speaks to this core purpose, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Doing this requires more than a single encounter on Sabbath mornings. We’re going to need many more opportunities—study groups, service opportunities, and other creative settings. Growing in faith is not a solitary exercise; it is nurtured through faith-affirming relationships.
As you and I consider how we are designed for relationships, there are some questions that arise:
- Are there relationships that I have neglected that need my attention?
- Am I growing each day as a person who benefits others’ lives at home, work, and church?
- Have I been missing the benefits God provides through the personal gathering of people of faith each Sabbath?
- Is my most important relationship—my relationship with Jesus—the first priority of each day?
God designed us for relationships. May we find what C.S. Lewis experienced: "When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.… When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.”3
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Bradford C. Newton is the president of the Pacific Union Conference.
1 Warren S. Brown and Brad D. Strawn, The Physical Nature of Christian Life: Neuroscience, Psychology, and the Church (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012).
2 All Scripture quotations are from the New International Version.
3 C.S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963, vol. 3, ed. Walter Hooper (San Francisco, HarperCollins, 2007), p. 247.
