Reaching Out

Dear Christa—

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed

in all their vast array (Gen. 2:1).

It was all done. The light, the plants, the birds and the fish of the sea, the animals everyone, and then there was man. We don’t know how long Adam lived in the garden in all its unimaginable beauty. I wonder. How long did it take him to get lonely?

It’s so easy to be lonely when there are people all around. I’ll have to admit that I treasure some alone time. Our children may be grown, yet I live in a people filled world of teenagers. And, I see a lot. And often I see lonely. I sometimes see lonely in heart.

In a Christian school with the gospel on walls and tee shirts, I can see lonely. Sometimes it makes me sad. Yet, I see reaching too. I see those who will reach out. At times I see lonely washed away like fresh falling snow on a dry cold ground. I spend a lot of time talking about writing and literature and getting beneath the surface to the heart of what is being said. But, I do a lot of watching too.

So, here near the beginning of Genesis, the Bible says, it was all completed in its vast array. Doesn’t that sound so cool?

It was awesome.

I can only look out at the snowcapped peaks from our back door and try to fathom the total reflection of God the untainted world captured.

Yet, even in all that, God said that it was not good for Adam to be alone.

It was not good.

It is not good to be alone. We need the people who fill our world. And the people who fill our world need us. I have a cousin who owns an ice cream shop. There are times she spends the hours alone, but when the shop fills—with lots or just a few—she ministers to them.

It was not good for Adam to be alone, so God created Eve. God created Eve knowing fully the outcome—the marring of all that unadulterated beauty, but He created her anyway. He created her because Adam needed her.