I have just been re-reading some points I marked off in "Searching for God Knows What" by Donald Miller, and I came across this part that I wanted to share.
"...I noticed that 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 screwup, rather that God made me this way. You always picture the perfect human being as somebody who doesn't need anybody, like a guy on a horse out in Colorado or whatever. But here is Adam, the only perfect guy in the world, and he is going around wanting to be with somebody else, needing another person to fulfill a certain emptiness in his life. And as I said, 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."
So, from reading this text, two thoughts come across my mind that I am going to share
The first is how Donald mentioned he takes comfort in knowing that Adam felt lonely. This is something that I had never thought of before. In these past few months, I have been struggling off and on with the feelings of loneliness, and if it is a weakness on my part to be desiring close friends, and eventually (way down the road) a husband. But Adam, the very first man to walk the earth, and he was without sin (before the fall), had a desire to be with someone. God created us to need and want companionship, community and relationships. I definitly take comfort in that! To know that I'm not being weak by desiring companionship is a great relief...and once again coming to the realization that God created me the way I am for a reason
The second thought that I dwelled on was that Adam did not get Eve straight away. This is something else I had never noticed before. God told Adam to go and name the animals. Donald Miller goes on to emphasis how long a process that must have actually have been...naming the animals. Donald guesses that it must have taken Adam a year just to name the snakes, and over a hundred years to name all the animals. I don't know how accurate a guess that is, but it definitely puts it into perspective! It then goes on in the book to talk about Adam receiving his companion...
"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....God made Adam work for so long because there is no way, after a hundred years of being alone, looking for somebody whom you could connect with in your soul, 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."
A lot of times we become impatient, angry, and frustrated attempting to wait on God's timing in our life. For so many of us, waiting for the Mr/Mrs "right" could be one of the hardest things to be patient about and completely trust to God. But aren't some things just worth the wait? Especially if God wants to make sure you are going to appreciate the true gift that He is going to give to you?
Maybe the aspect of a future wife/husband isn't an issue at all for you, for whatever reason. But is there something else you're having difficulty trusting to God? Something you want now because you "need" it and just can't wait another day for things to happen your way? Is God telling you to go and name the animals, but you are refusing to obey?
"...I noticed that 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 screwup, rather that God made me this way. You always picture the perfect human being as somebody who doesn't need anybody, like a guy on a horse out in Colorado or whatever. But here is Adam, the only perfect guy in the world, and he is going around wanting to be with somebody else, needing another person to fulfill a certain emptiness in his life. And as I said, 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."
So, from reading this text, two thoughts come across my mind that I am going to share
The first is how Donald mentioned he takes comfort in knowing that Adam felt lonely. This is something that I had never thought of before. In these past few months, I have been struggling off and on with the feelings of loneliness, and if it is a weakness on my part to be desiring close friends, and eventually (way down the road) a husband. But Adam, the very first man to walk the earth, and he was without sin (before the fall), had a desire to be with someone. God created us to need and want companionship, community and relationships. I definitly take comfort in that! To know that I'm not being weak by desiring companionship is a great relief...and once again coming to the realization that God created me the way I am for a reason
The second thought that I dwelled on was that Adam did not get Eve straight away. This is something else I had never noticed before. God told Adam to go and name the animals. Donald Miller goes on to emphasis how long a process that must have actually have been...naming the animals. Donald guesses that it must have taken Adam a year just to name the snakes, and over a hundred years to name all the animals. I don't know how accurate a guess that is, but it definitely puts it into perspective! It then goes on in the book to talk about Adam receiving his companion...
"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....God made Adam work for so long because there is no way, after a hundred years of being alone, looking for somebody whom you could connect with in your soul, 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."
A lot of times we become impatient, angry, and frustrated attempting to wait on God's timing in our life. For so many of us, waiting for the Mr/Mrs "right" could be one of the hardest things to be patient about and completely trust to God. But aren't some things just worth the wait? Especially if God wants to make sure you are going to appreciate the true gift that He is going to give to you?
Maybe the aspect of a future wife/husband isn't an issue at all for you, for whatever reason. But is there something else you're having difficulty trusting to God? Something you want now because you "need" it and just can't wait another day for things to happen your way? Is God telling you to go and name the animals, but you are refusing to obey?
2 comments:
hey its jamie agian
Hey esther, i like your thinking though i think it could be alittle off, no where in scripture does it indicate that adam is lonley or incomplete. it just says "it is not good for man to be alone" adam walked with god, his life was complete cause god completes are life. i'm reading a book called "on mission with God" and one thing he tries to do is get you to look at a situation in the bible and see how god uses it for eternity, i believe thats what god is doing here. He says latter on to john, every knee will bow and every tougne confess that he is lord. so God some how needed to make away for man to reproduce. Cause god is eternal past present future all at once he would have remembered his promise or prophacy to John in revalation, or to Abraham when he said he will bless his people, god had to make women. i do not believe women are just for reproduction, but i dont believe adam was lacking anything. this is just my view though, and i really like your idea that god did make him wait, and i agree in our lives god will make us wait.
the bible says we where created in gods image, god is complete, so adam being complete because he was created in gods image. Second! with him being alone didnt stop him from being complete but he couldnt fully understand what it meant to be human, and gods plan for then down the road. my sub text says this "without female companionship and partnership and a partner in reproduction, the man could not fully realize his humanity. !YOU CANT MISS WHAT YOU DONT KNOW1!
Another thing compionship doesnt make you complete! Look at paul he was celibate, yet complete cause he had god. marrage or whatever isnt for everyone since paul talks about celibacy as a gift thus some will have it. Though since god wants to accoplish his will and have many people worship him we must be able to reproduce, god gave adam a wife to accoplish HIS purpose not to make Adam a happy man, for he already was. alot of what the auther says i do believe, just some is pretty far-feched with some assuming going on. my thoughts though, well take care and some one respond, i'm directly disagreeing. God bless
I'm definilty not saying that we need to have a life companion in order to be complete...I am just saying that God designed us to have relationships and community with people, and this was the very first example of it. You're right..God said "it is not good for man to be alone" so he gave Adam a companion. I'm also not saying that Adam HAD to have Eve in order to be complete, because I can't even imagine the type of completeness and fullness that Adam had walking with God in the garden before the fall of man. It's a closeness that we will be incapable of having until we are in Heaven with our Lord. But...if the Lord saw fit that man should not be alone..and that he needed to create Eve, then is it a very far off assumption that there was a need in Adam that had yet to be fulfilled? Not saying that it was a need he needed to survive, or to feel "complete", but a longing for a human companion. I don't think that God would go out of His way, nor would the author of Gensis go out of their way to record God saying, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him" if there wasn't some deep desire or need that Adam had. And yes, he probably had no idea, and could not concieve the idea of a woman, or another human, as he had never seen one..but God knew. I don't pretend to be a scholar of the Bible or the creation of man...but God did not create Eve for Adam without there being a reason for it. And with reference to Paul..yah he never married, but he definilty had community with fellow believers. And even when he was alone, he wrote to others to encourage them and continued to belong to the family of God. We were not meant to be alone. If we were, Eve wouldn't have been created for Adam, and Jesus wouldn't have spent his years in community with 12 other people.
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