Eve
lived in a world without a past to go on. First Woman. She had no predecessors to look to.
Imagine this. Eve appears one day in a lush garden, having no idea where she came from. There’s only one other human, a man, and he is her husband. She reaches for too much of this beautiful life and ends up expelled from the garden. On the way out, God tells her, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing.” What? She’d never had a child and would know nothing of this.
She finds her way into this harsh new world, conceives, and bears two sons, Cain and Abel. Yes, the promised “pain in childbearing” was hers, but her joy in these two boys erased all remembrance of it.
Then one day Cain lures his little brother into a field and kills him. Murder? She’s never seen death before. What kind of a world is this? she wonders. It’s clearly not safe, not for children. She grieves. She buries Abel, and God banishes Cain. Both sons, gone.
No one could have blamed Eve if she had decided that this new world is not fit for human life, that she was just too gutted to open herself to conception, again. Yet somehow, she finds it in her heart to trust life. It took 130 years (see Gen. 5:3), but Eve conceives and bears a child, Seth (Gen. 4: 1-25).
If the Bible holds a tale of greater faith and trust, I don’t know what it is.
COMPANIONS ON THE WAY
Introduction
Stories of Turning
Week One
Stories of Wild Places
Week Two
Stories of Dogged Faith
Week Three
Stories of Mercy & Forgiveness
Week Four
Stories of Simplicity & Joy
Week Five
Stories of Prayer & Surrender
Week Six
Stories of Transforming Love
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