It was dusk when they
reached their tent for the evening meal and rest. One of their many, many
great-great-great-great., etc. granddaughters had already prepared their meal.
Their bedding had also been prepared, and other nightly things set out. Eve
smiled. What a blessing of the Lord, her
family. So many descendents. So many children, and grandchildren, and
beyond! She had seen wedding after
wedding, birth after birth. She had been
midwife to hundreds, maybe thousands of births, even as she winced with guilt
at every moan of pain. She knew everyone
was responsible for their own sin, that her folly had not forced subsequent
disobedience – but “great pains in childbirth” had been a part of the curse of
the Fall. She wants to be there for
every birth possible and help however she could. After all, she was the first to discover the
wonder and terror of birth…
One day, she noticed she wasn’t feeling well. She couldn’t keep her eyes open, and she kept
getting sick, again and again. Pretty
soon her belly began…and panic began to set itn. What new disease was
this? Was she going to…die? She and Adam had no experience with human
death, but they had seen it in animals.
Was this finally how it would end, with some odd disease taking out
mankind, victims of their own pride and disbelief?
But then the Lord revealed that no, she wasn’t
dying. Far from it – she was growing new
life! What an experience that first
pregnancy was! Every little ache and
pain was a new discovery. And nothing
had prepared her for the joy that came with the quickening, that first time she
felt life move within her. She was
overwhelmed that she could partner with the Father in the miracle of bringing
new life. This was something only she
and her daughters would experience. This
would be a special connection between women and their Creator.
She didn’t know how long it would take, but one day, the
pains began. Wave after wave they
came. Through it all there was some sort
of instinct telling her what to do – walk around, sit, breathe, scream. Adam
had been a wreck. He was as
supportive as he knew how to be, but he couldn’t hide the fear on his face
every time she gasped in pain. As she
suffered, he had done what they had learned to do in times of trouble – cried
out to the Father. All at once, at the
height of their fear, the presence of the Lord was there, all around them, and
a peace fell upon them as the realized something truly miraculous was about to
occur.
Eve had never had such an appreciation for the curse she
had brought down on herself than when the time came to give birth to Cain. She had never experienced such pain. She felt herself seemingly rip from end to
end, and she thought she would lose consciousness – but then, in a flood of
blood and water, he was there. Cain, the
firstborn of all mankind. A new chapter
in human history had begun. As Eve
wrapped him up in a skin and held him to her breast, she cried joyous tears in
praise and thanksgiving to God. In that
moment she had the tiniest glimpse of the love God has for His creation and the
joy of creating life.
As miraculous as birth was, it was just as miraculous
that Cain survived his childhood! She
was still amazed she hadn’t killed him with all her mistakes. She had no mother to call on for advice. There was no expert advice to call on. She just had to stumble along and figure out
how babies worked. God protected her son
over and over again. In time, another
miracle, Able, had been born. She knew,
as she gazed upon her boys, that surely she served a gracious, forgiving God,
for no God that wished to punish her forever would have given her this joy that
was so beyond her own heart that it could only come from the Divine.
Too tired now to push away the memoires, Eve winced with
pain as she remembered her first two sons.
She had no idea at the time of their births that such immeasurable joy
could also bring such immeasurable pain.
The pain of childbirth was a mere pinch when compared with the emotional
pain of watching her children grow up at odd with one another, a rivalry that
ended in another first: the first human bloodshed. How had it all gone wrong? How had two boys, born of the same mother and
father, grown up so radically different.
She knew she had made mistakes with Cain. Maybe she had been too harsh. Maybe she hadn’t been harsh enough. Maybe she had overprotected him. Maybe she had spoiled him as the firstborn or
ignored him too much as his siblings came.
She knew, as he had grown older, that his heart wasn’t in the right
place, but every effort she made towards him was met with indifference or
opposition. More children were born, and
her time became more and more divided, which only gave Cain more opportunity to
pull away. She prayed in desperation as
she watched Cain’s heart grow colder.
This was the first time she realized the generational impact of her and
Adam’s sin. Her children and her
children’s children would have to contend with great and greater temptations. The enemy that has preyed upon her weakness
in the Garden now preyed upon her children with a greater power, which they had
allowed with their own choices. Now her
firstborn was making his own choices, and try as she might, he was slipping
further and further away.
In contrast, his brother Abel seemed content to sit at
her feet and learn as much about the Lord as he could. Abel loved the stories about Eden as much as
Cain scorned them. Eve’s hopes had been
high for Abel. He had eagerly desired to
give his best for God. He made mistakes,
he had his faults – after all, they’d left perfection back in the Garden – but
the difference between him and his brother was that where Cain feigned
indifference, Abel desired repentance.
He learned how to communicate with God, seek God’s face, and discover
from God what was expected of him. As
the family grew, Abel also sought to teach his brothers, sisters, nieces and
nephews all he had learned about God.
Eve had watched the relationship between these two very
different men grow from simple sibling rivalry to a division of jealousy and
hatred. Cain soon wouldn’t stay in the
same place as Abel, so blinding was his jealousy and anger. Eve knew one day
there would be a reckoning, but she had no idea how bad it would be.
She knew of the sacrifices. Abel had told her, in one of the last
conversations she’d ever had with him.
She knew Abel had chosen the best portions of his flock to offer up to the
Lord while Cain had just picked what was
convenient for him to give up from his crop.
She knew of the Lord’s favor on Abel’s sacrifice and His displeasure
with Cain’s. She also knew of Cain’s
rage. All one had to do was look at his
face to know something was very, very wrong,.
She knew, too, of the admonition to Cain that he must
master the sin creeping into his life or it would overtake him…but not until
after, when Cain had to come explain to his parents why he was being driven
away. That was the day in her life that
has been closest to the pain of losing what they’d had in the garden. She had not felt such anguish since leaving,
not since those first awful days. Her
son, Abel, dead at the hand of his own brother.
Her oldest son, Cain, driven from their land and from the heart of God,
all of his own choosing. She lost two sons that day. One to a bloody, terrible, new cruelty in the
world: murder. The other a victim of his
own choices, pride, and anger.
She never saw Cain again.
That day he’d packed up his wife, children, belongings and gone out into
the world. The last memory she had of
him was the look of wounded rage in his eyes masking his fear. That, and the mark upon his forehead. The mark would keep him physically safe from
harm, but it would also mark him to all who met him as one who displeased the
Lord. Eve knew Cain was strong and would
prove to be a powerful leader. He would
survive. Indeed, in time, word began to
get back to them that he had built himself a nation and founded a new people
group. But the generational sins of
murder and arrogance had taken root, and Cain’s tribes became known for their
violence and strife. One of Cain’s
descendents, Lamech, had famously declared his bloody vengeance upon another
man. Blood and violence became bywords
for Cain’s people.
The cancer of sin seemed to spread throughout mankind,
and not only in Cain’s family. Eve
shuddered as she thought of some of the stories coming back to her about the
unholy activities of her own flesh and blood.
As man began to increase on the earth, so did their sin. She could now clearly see how much the enemy
hated as beloved creatures of God and how much he sought to destroy
mankind. Debauchery, wickedness, and
evil ran rampant through the hearts of man.
Eve wondered just how long it count continue on this way. She could not imagine that God would tolerate
such flagrant disobedience. How was it
to end? Would they all be wiped
out? Or would the God of mercy offer a
thread of grace and redemption?
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