We are relational indeed.

This excerpt from Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller is absolutely beautiful. Like it or not, we were made to be relational creatures. Not only relational with God, but also relational with one other. This take on Adam and Eve was a great re-read for me recently. I couldn't have said it any better myself. It may look like a long and daunting read to you, but SERIOUSLY, take your time to actually READ it. You won't be sorry - Promise. (especially Jessica Paulsen- you'll love this) :)

"Women are slow to love. I used to think it was because something was wrong with them, but, over time, I wondered whether they were more deliberate than men about important decisions...And in comparison I realized they were infinitely more intelligent about relational matters than men.

And then I began to wonder about Eve, what the scene might have looked like when she and Adam first met…

I noticed Adam and Eve didn't meet right away. Moses said God knew Adam was lonely or incomplete or however you want to say it, but God did not create Eve directly after He stated Adam was lonely. This struck me as funny, because a lot of times when I think about life before the Fall, I don't think of people going around lonely. But that thought also comforted me because I realized loneliness in my own life doesn't mean I am a complete screw-up, but rather that God made me this way...here is Adam, the only perfect guy in the world, and he is going around wanting to be with somebody else...when God saw this, He did not create Eve right away. He did not give Adam what he needed immediately. He waited. He told Adam to name the animals.

…I looked up how many animals there are in the world… and even if you believe in evolution, that means there were between one million and fifty million species around in the time of the Garden, and Adam, apparently, had to name all of them. And the entire time he was lonely.

…The thing is, when Adam finished naming the animals, after all his work and effort, God put him to sleep, took a rib out of his side, and fashioned a woman....I don't think I quite realized how beautiful this moment was. Moses said the whole time Adam was naming the animals, that entire hundred years, he couldn’t find a helpmate suitable for him… and the entire time he could not imagine what a helpmate would look like, how a helpmate might talk, the ways in which a helpmate might think. The idea of another person had, perhaps, never entered Adam’s mind. Just like a kid who grows up without a father has no idea what having a father would be like, a guy who grows up the only human would have no idea what having another human around would be like.

So here was this guy who was intensely relational, needing other people, and in order to cause him to appreciate the gift of companionship, God has him hang out with chimps for a hundred years. It’s quite beautiful, really. God directed Adam's steps so that when He created Eve, Adam would have the utmost appreciation, respect, and gratitude.

I think it was smart of God because today, now that there are women all around and a guy can go on the Internet and see them naked anytime he wants, the whole species has been devalued...I thought how very beautiful it was that God made Adam work for so long because there is no way, after a hundred years of being alone, that you would take advantage of a woman once you met one. She would be the most precious creation in all the world, and you would probably wake up every morning and look at her and wonder at her beauty, or the gentle, silent way she sleeps...

For the first time in his life, Adam was seeing a person who was like him, only more beautiful, and smarter in the ways of love and encouragement, and more deliberate in the ways of relationships. He must have thought to himself that she was perfect, and after a few days of just talking and getting to know each other, they must have fallen deeply in love. After Adam had taken Eve to the distant mountains where they could look down on the four rivers, and after he built for her a home and showed her the waterfalls and taught her the names of all the animals, he must have gone on a long walk with God and thanked Him, and I'll bet that was a very beautiful conversation. I'll bet Adam felt loved by God, like he was somebody God was always trying to bless and surprise with amazing experiences, and I'll bet they talked together about how beautiful Eve was and how wonderful it was that the two of them could know her, and I would imagine that Eve felt safe, loved, not used or gawked at, but appreciated and admired.

…Considering this couple, and what Adam went through to appreciate Eve to the utmost, I wondered at how beautiful it is that you and I were created to need each other… We are relational indeed.”