She was, indeed, first love. Perhaps it was first real job or a new one that was clearly right. Maybe it was a new self-understanding, or a new clarity and direction in life. But whatever its description, life in the midst of it pulsed enthusiastically and the future opened more invitingly. It was like first love.
New faith pulses like that.
And if you know it, then you probably know, as well, the brittleness it becomes once withered. That had happened, apparently, in Ephesus. Ephesus was the chief city of western Asia Minor and one of the largest in the Roman Empire. It had a long and important history as the site of a huge temple to Artemis, an Asian mother-goddess, also known as Diana to the Romans. Paul spent several years in Ephesus.