Lessons from Mother Eve - Wk #6

This week I have been pondering on Mother Eve.

I have been pondering on the kind of woman that she was. 

Eve was a woman of character and courage. She was a brave woman and ready to face the hardships of mortality alongside her husband Adam. 

Though Eve knew that the times ahead of her were going to be difficult and that the road would be bumpy, I'm not quite sure she knew how difficult it would really be. 

I imagine her experiencing the indescribable joy of conceiving, bearing and delivering her first child. I imagine her pain and and anguish through the process as well. I wonder how she felt as the first mother. 

I wonder at how Eve parented and watched her children grow. She would have loved her children each so dearly and must've had a marvelous capacity to love so many of them. 

Eve loved Cain. She loved Abel. Those were two of her precious boys that she had cried, laughed, taught and talked with. She would have felt their joys and their pains from birth. I imagine they went and spoke with her when they were having difficult times. I imagine her empathetically loving them unconditionally, as she always strove with Adam to testify of her Savior and the divine plan that God had in store for each one of them. 

I cannot pretend to imagine her complete devastation at the news of Abel's - not just death - but his murder at the hand of his brother. I cannot imagine the devastation she endured as she realized that Cain was cursed. 

What could I have done better? In what ways did I let them both down? I should have... 

As any of us in Mother Eve's place, I wonder if she blamed herself. I wonder if her heart ached to know what else she could have done. 

Eve would never be the same again. How can life go on? How is there any joy left? 

In her hopeless despair, I imagine her reaching out to God, pleading and begging desperately that he would offer her a glimmer of hope and light in her seemingly dismal world. 

In her outpourings to God, I believe she found comfort and peace. I think she felt the healing love of Jesus Christ and His infinite love her. I think she was comforted knowing that she would see her beloved and martyred son again. 

And as the faithful woman that she was, I believe she rose up again. A new Eve. A changed Eve. But an Eve that decided to grow closer to Jesus instead of turning towards bitterness and hatred. An Eve that realized that her children have their agency, to choose for themselves the paths that they take. An Eve that felt closure in knowing that there was nothing she could've done to prevent the horrific event from taking place. 

As a woman, I take pride in Eve's courage, her hope, and her reaching out to God in the midst of some of her deepest heartache. I take pride knowing that she didn't give up in despair and abandon her children or husband. I take pride knowing that she faithfully continued on. 

Eve comforts me. She gives me hope and strength knowing that Jesus helps heals our wounds and bind our hearts back together. 

While we may not experience the martyrdom of our children at the hands of our children, we each face intense heartache and pain in this life. We each experience love and joy, anguish and misery. I think all of us at some point, wonder like Eve, Can I go on? How can life ever be the same? And each of us, like Eve, are faced with a choice, over and over again of, Do I turn, run, abandon? Do I lose hope that God will give me peace or that He'll work things out? Or should I stay, believe, hope, turn outward instead of inward?

I am forever grateful for her and the lessons she has taught me in turning toward God, husband and family, instead of turning away and choosing bitterness and despair. 

May we each like Eve, find the courage to pick ourselves back up, find strength in Jesus, and carry on in faith and courage, as we continue to choose faith and family instead of our misery.