Who is Eve, The First Mother?

What can we learn from Eve in the Bible?

The first mention of pain (עָצַב – ah-tzav) in the Bible is in the story of Eve. It is a specific pain—the pain experienced through childbirth. Eve, the “source of life”, would still be able to bring life into the world outside of Eden, but she would now have to walk through pain to do so.

By believing a lie, she traded what would probably have been an entirely joyful childbearing experience for one that was a tension of great joy and great pain.

We experience this tension in our lives today. We must never fear pain, but always remember that our identity is ultimately found above the pain in this world.

Eve is an example of losing and discovering identity. While we tend to focus on Eve and the serpent, Eve’s heart and her certainty in the faithfulness of God were also at risk. When the serpent asked her what God truly said, he twisted God’s words.

He asked if God said that they should not eat from any tree in the garden (Genesis 3:1). However, God only said that they should not eat from one specific tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

This put the lie into Eve’s heart that God was holding out on her. Although she corrected the serpent, that doubt about her identity and God’s faithfulness crept into her heart as surely as that serpent craftily slithered into the garden.

What if everything she believed wasn’t true? In a few moments, Eve would eat the fruit and give it to her husband, both believing in the deception and bringing sin into the world with their choice. With just one wrong belief, everything changed.

How do we tend the garden of our hearts?

As mothers, it can be difficult to recognize the deceptions that subtly steal our joy. Unfortunately, those lies the serpent spoke still echo in the whispers of our hearts today. We doubt that God will be faithful to our family, we doubt our ability to be a good parent, and we even doubt our own identity.

When we experience pain, we are ever reminded of our own inability to take away the deeper pain of sin. Like Eve, we search for some kind of forbidden fruit to fill the void of incapability that we believe can be fixed if we could just have all the right answers.

But God isn’t surprised by our doubt and fear. He already holds all the solutions. Although Eve could never again reenter that first garden, she went on to become the mother of all humankind. We, as daughters of Eve, can come to a new garden of peace through the grace of Christ.

When we face the next morning full of diapers, homework, or sinks full of dirty dishes, we can choose to listen to a new voice in the garden of our hearts. Today, we can make a conscious choice to tend our hearts and focus on our identity in Christ.