As human beings it seems we are often missing a link. I don’t mean the missing link in the evolutionary ladder, but the link that we have as beings in the community of all that exists.
I confess I like to tweak people who claim to really know their Bible. After God said “It is not good for man to be alone” what did God do? Usually people jump right to the creation of Eve from rib of Adam whom God had put into a deep sleep. But God did something else first according to the account in Genesis 2.
Before creating a woman, God created the animals and brought them to Adam. He named them, demonstrating that he understood their natures. But in that act of naming he also established his superiority over them. That is what the act of naming implies. The superior always names the inferior in the culture from which this story comes.
Part of the lesson taught in this part of the story is the responsibility human beings have for the rest of nature. We are linked to the rest of existence. This is not just a spiritual assertion. It is a reality in nature, one we ignore at our peril. We don’t need to rank species according to importance. All living things are important.
It also means that we are not alone. We are never alone completely. Certainly we long for one who will complete us in an intimate way. But we always have a responsibility to this world. We draw our sustenance from it, we also need to give something back.