When I was around 37 years old, I started wanting “to be known.” I was craving and yearning to be understood and loved in spite of my flaws. While I had never yearned for such intimacy before, somehow receiving this from God was no longer enough–I wanted more. God had mandated Adam and Eve and their descendants to multiply, and I too, was eager to obey that command. But why was that taking so long for me?

To me, “being known” meant more than a physical connection with the opposite sex. It meant someone could look into my eyes and understand my inner thoughts. He would be able to finish my sentences. He’d be familiar with my likes, dislikes, and everything in between. Our hearts would beat at a hundred miles an hour at the mention of each other’s name. Was this a fantasy? Many married couples would probably laugh and say, “Yes, this is a very unrealistic fantasy.” Yet, many singles dream of and yearn for that type of intimacy.

Over time, I have come to learn from Eve’s story. Though she had been given the freedom to eat out of many other trees in the garden, she coveted and lingered in front of the one forbidden tree–the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I realized that by coveting, longing for, and yearning to have something I was not privy to (yet), I was failing to appreciate what I already had—a relationship with God and close family and friends who loved me and loved getting to know me. 

While I might not know what it means to be known the way Adam and Eve knew each other, and though I still have hope that I might someday, I continue to find strength when I purposefully refocus the trajectory of my thoughts toward these truths: 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you …” Jeremiah 1:5

and

“An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.” 1 Corinthians 7:34