Letter To Adam

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was mother of all living.  Genesis 3:21  ESV

Dear Adam,

 What name will you choose for your wife?  Can you name her anything remotely heartwarming?  Are you feeling the pressure?   You’ve just watched your wife sin while you stood passively by.  You’ve both experienced God’s judgment.  You’ve both heard a curse pronounced on the land, on this beautiful garden that has brought you nothing but pleasure and the best of things to eat.  Life must seem like it’s over.  How does it feel to have broken the heart of your Creator?

And yet, you choose to name your wife, Eve.  It means ‘life’.  Really?  You can name her the ‘mother of all living’ in spite of your grief?  I don’t understand.  There is no way you could think this up apart from feeling some kind of hope.  You heard your Father, didn’t you!  In the middle of pronouncing the curse, He told of someone who will come from your wife…one to crush the head of the serpent who deceived you.  You feel the tinge of justice rectified?  You feel the ache of personal sin forgiven?  Your hope hangs on the God you know you can trust.  You know He is good for His word.

So ‘Eve’ it is!  When you speak it against the backdrop of tragedy; it is an utterance of faith.  When you say her name, do you feel anything joyful?  Probably not yet.  The grief is too recent.

Please know that all who live after you will struggle with the same challenge.  We will choose names for children who will be hopelessly lost without the Redeemer to come.  We will grieve for them, wondering if their cherished name is a mistake.  But we will trust the same God who walked with you in the garden.  We will know He can’t fail.

The one who crushed the head of the serpent is our Redeemer too.  Though we were born cursed, we are now children of the living and not of the dead, beloved and not despised.

Thank you for exercising faith in what looked futile.  In heaven, we will worship together at the feet of our Creator.

Inspired by you, I am your distant relative,

Christine