Eve

I've been re-reading Searching for God Knows What, by my hero and victim of my plagiarism, Donald Miller. He has a way with describing feelings, especially love, that I could never attempt to imitate. He talks about the story of Adam and Eve, the first two human beings, the first couple, and the first romance between a man and a woman.

But before God created Eve, it was just Adam and God in the vast garden called Eden, which was probably the size of an entire continent. You can imagine how lonely Adam was. Granted he had a great and loving God there to keep him company, but he still probably longed for someone more like him, to fill that emptiness in his soul. It was around that time that God put Adam in charge of naming all the animals He created. There were probably thousands, if not millions of different species of animal then, and the Bible says he gives names to every single one of them. This must have taken at least a hundred years, and all throughout the long process of documenting and categorizing all of these animals, he was lonely.

Only after Adam names all of the living things in Eden, and finds that none of them can take the place of that companion that he so longs for, does God create Eve. After decades of being the only human being in existence, Adam sees one who is like him, but in so many ways different. Special. Like everything he lacked would be made complete in her, and everything she lacked was made complete in him. Like they were, in every aspect, made to complement the other. Together, they made something beautiful and true.

It seems cruel that God kept Adam's missing half away from him for so long. But Donald Miller notes that it would be impossible, after all that time of being alone and without a partner, that Adam would mistreat Eve, or take her for granted. He would treasure and respect her, never wanting to go back to the time when Eve never existed.

I feel like God knows I'm lonely, in need of someone to complete me, but instead of showing me my Eve, he has me doing his work, naming the animals or something. But I have something that Adam didn't have. Something to look forward to. The knowledge that someday, God will send that perfect match my way. She'll be beautiful. And she won't mind the fact that I don't always know what to say, or that I don't really care about wearing trendy clothes.
And I hope she'll like the songs I'll write her.