Our family has started going through the books Women of the Bible and Men of the Bible in our weekly bible study (me and Julie alternate with the women and Austin and Ben alternate with the men). This week we studied about Eve; about her character, her joy, and her sorrow. She was the first women to experience paradise and possessing every pleasure imaginable, and the first to experience grief, pain, suffering, guilt, bitterness, and estrangement.
Here is some food for thought… one of the questions it asks in the book is “How easily do you think the serpent deceived Eve? Do you think she ate the fruit the first time he approached her, or did he wear her down over a period of time?” We don’t know the answer to the question the bible doesn’t tell us. We would like to think that she didn’t cave on the first encounter and that she resisted at first, but think how easily we sin. When we are tempted with our struggles think about how easy we are to fall into the enemies trap. But God’s grace and mercy is unending, when he punished Adam and Eve he gave them the promise that one day their offspring would eventually destroy the enemy, and one day they would be able to return to paradise. God is so merciful, with each punishment that God gives he always gives a promise. That is comforting to know.
Eve was also the first mother. She went through labor multiple times… (I just want to say that I am glad that it wasn’t me. If I was Eve our family would have consisted of Adam, me, and Cain. That’s it! There wouldn’t be any more children unless their is an epidural involved. After feeling the pain—I would be done.— Ok lets be real, that’s probably not true there would be more children because the end result is worth the pain.) The only other physical person to help Eve during her labors was Adam. This was all new to her. She didn’t have any access to medicine, I’m sure that eventually she found/made some medicine to help by using the vegetation that was around her, but nothing to touch the pain that comes during a contraction (I think the only thing that would relieve that pain is an epidural). Eve was a very strong women.
I think back to my labor story with Emma. During our appointments with the doctor she asked if I planned to get an epidural or not. I told her I wanted to try without drugs but to have them ready encase I changed my mind. Well at 5pm the contractions started. It was pain that I had never felt before. I thought yep an epidural sounds good right now. I told the doctor that I changed my mind and wanted the epidural. The doctor told me the Anesthesiologist was 10 minutes out. I knew at that point I wasn’t getting the drugs. Emma was coming and I couldn’t wait 10 minutes… I needed to push. The pain only intensified as the time went on. I am very lucky because my labor time was short. At 5:45pm Emma was born and the pain was gone and my heart was filled with a love I had never known. Eve felt that same love. The love of a mother for her child. That is a strong and powerful love. But it is nothing compared to the love that God has for his children. Even though I love Emma with everything I have, God loves her more. I can’t fathom that. It is a love that only God has. God’s love is unconditional. Even in times of punishment and trials God’s love is present. God will never stop loving us. How great it is to know that.
In him,
Taylor