EVE (4)

EVE: “to breathe” or “to live”

Week 3: The Gift or the Burden?

The Setting: Genesis 3:16, 20; 4:1-2, 25

Imagine: After “the fall” God says to the woman (Gen 3:16) “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing…” Is it just me or did God plan on childbirth being a pleasant experience? Can you envision a life being formed in you? Some of you already know what that feels like, but what if you didn’t know a sole that had a child? That you were the very first person alive to give birth, what would you be thinking? Eve gave birth to Cain first (Gen 4:1). The only person there was Adam. Now if you only had your husband there to deliver your baby, how would you be reacting right about now? I’m talking cutting the umbilical cord, washing and cleaning him, wrapping him up in something, and anything else they do these days. Can you see your husband not panicking an making sure everything that needed to get done got done, yet he has absolutely NO IDEA (because it has NEVER happened before up until this moment), what he is doing? Pretty sure Adam was freaking out a bit. If it was me, I’d think if the baby was crying right when he came out that something was wrong, not thinking, “oh good, he’s alive and breathing.” By the time that Abel came around, I think Adam had a much better idea of what he was doing, but probably not much more (Gen 4:2). When Seth was born, Adam had other women around I’m sure to take care of all of that (Gen 4:25).

Think about Eve:  She not only gave birth for the first time in history, but to the first murderer. That alone is traumatic, but then to know who the victim is…the first victim to be murdered is her only other child...I don’t know how I would feel or begin to deal with it all. Then to have your first born banished…not that you would even want to see him that often, but having the chance to is preferred. Time passes, Eve and Adam are thinking about trying again and they do try. Only to have another son and calls him basically the “replacement” to Abel (Gen 4:25). Not sure if my self-esteem as the “replacement” child to my oldest brother would sit very well with me. Eve’s parenting skills were new obviously, but seriously, no child wants to hear that.

Thoughts for the week:

Married Women:

1.    If you were in the middle of no where about to have a baby and the only person there to help you was your husband, do you think he would step up? Or a better question, would the child survive a delivery from your husband?

Single Women:

2.    Does giving birth scare you? Do you even want children and all that goes with becoming a mother?

All Women:

3.    What are the greatest risks in becoming a mother for you?

4.    What are the greatest gifts in becoming a mother for you?

Challenge:

Thank God for the gift of your own life. Thank your parents for having you. And thank God for the blessing, that only women can have, to create inside of each of us the gift of a new life. It is a miracle that any of us are here.

I think of it like this: It’s as if God touches each of our bodies and starts that new life for us because we could not on our own. And it is Him alone that chooses what happens to that child. How he or she is formed, what they will look like, how they will grow, if that child will grow…we don’t always know why things happen the way that they do, and may never know, but I have to believe and stand on: He knows best.