February makes me appreciate my wife, Elsie. Yes, I know it's the month of love and Valentine's Day, but I appreciate not having to live life alone. Elsie helps to take away my aloneness. "So, Irv, are you saying that all singles should get married so they don't have to be alone?" No, the Bible doesn't teach that. It teaches that marriage and singleness are gifts of God (1 Corinthians 7:7). Singleness is not incompleteness, after all Jesus Christ was a single adult. It is simply to say that marriage has been a blessing to me and God's gift to me to help me with my aloneness. I don't think I'm the only guy who ever praised the Lord for his wife. In Genesis 2:18 the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."Judging from Adam's response in 2:23, he was pretty excited about God forming Eve. Eve was God's provision for Adam's state of aloneness.

I don't think she was enough. I don't think Eve could completely take away Adam's aloneness. She wasn't enough. She could be his helper, companion, lover, and partner, but she couldn't dispel the aloneness within Adam. All of us have the desire to be known intimately, loved exclusively, and accepted unconditionally. Intimacy requires transparency. My friend, Pastor Joe Anderson, of River Valley Church describes intimacy as "into me see." Intimacy is not about the surface show. It is the desire to have you see inside me, warts and all, and choose to love and accept me anyway.

Why am I telling you all this? Because a husband or wife can never completely take away our aloneness or know us with absolute intimacy. Only God can. Only God can live within us so that we are never alone (Hebrews 13:5). Only God can know us so intimately and transparently that no thought or even motive is hidden from Him. He is the One for whom our hearts long. He is precious to us and the ultimate fulfillment of Genesis 2:18. He is our Valentine. Give Him your heart for God loves you intimately.