What was it like for Eve?

In my last post I wrote about Adam and what life might have been like for him. Today my thoughts have turned to Eve. As a woman I can identify a little better with Eve than with Adam. When I questioned what it might have been like for Adam on the day he was presented with a wife I couldn’t even begin to imagine how he might have felt and thought…or maybe imagine is all I could do. I can imagine but my imagination takes me into places that Adam may not have gone. I’m in the same place with Eve but the fact that she’s a woman gives me, at least the illusion, that I might understand how she thought and felt just a little bit better than I did with Adam.

Adam was made outside the Garden of Eden and placed in it later.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and wall the host of them. 2 And xon the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

5 When no bush of the field1 was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put  the man whom he had formed.  Genesis 2:1-8

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Genesis 2:15

Eve was created inside the garden of Eden after it was made and Adam was already there.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Genesis 2:21-22

The same questions come to mind when I think of those first moments in Eve’s life that came to mind with Adam. What was it like to take that first breath? To look down and see hands and feet and know they belonged to her? To figure out how to move them? Could she walk immediately or did she have to learn how?

From verse seven…7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature…it seems that God named Adam man. Did Adam know that he was man as soon as he opened his eyes? When he took that first breath? When God talked to him the first time?

There’s no way to know when exactly Adam realized he was a man but Scripture tells us exactly when Eve would have found out she was a woman. When God brought her to Adam, Adam said…

23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:23

There Eve stood, probably marveling at all that was around her, getting her bearings, figuring out how to breathe and move, thoughts were most likely going through her head faster than she could process them. She was created somewhere in the garden. Scripture tells us that God brought her to Adam. Was she formed in sight of where Adam lay sleeping? Was Adam the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes? Or was she formed elsewhere and then brought to Adam when he woke up?

We know that God brought her to Adam but not from where. What was she thinking as she was led to Adam? Did she know who he was? Did she know how important he would be in her life?

I’ve talked with my daughters before about their future husbands. In those conversations from time to time it’s mentioned how nice it would be if our names were written across the forehead of our future spouse. If they were there would never be any guess work involved in whether or not the person standing in front of you was the one that you’re supposed to marry.

One of my daughters has asked more than once ‘how am I supposed to know if he’s the right one?’ A very good question. And one I only feel slightly qualified to answer. When I met my husband it was as if an invisible hand had control of everything. I couldn’t have not gotten involved with him if I’d wanted to. We knew each other less than two months when we married and had only been in each other’s presence eight days. One of my daughters says I was crazy for marrying that quick. What she doesn’t understand is that something…Someone…much bigger than me was in control of it all. From the first time I spoke with him there was just something there. It was a connection that I couldn’t have explained.

Did Eve feel that same sense of connection with Adam as she was taken to him. Did she know as she walked toward him that this man was her future?

I remember the first time I met my husband in person as I stood next to him I wondered if that was what it was like to look at your future. I now know that it was. With my husband there was just something there that was so much bigger than I was. It was a feeling. A connection. I was drawn to him in so many different ways. What I felt then is nearly impossible to put into words. Quite simply, I wasn’t in charge of any of it. The Lord was working things out between my husband and I. There is no other explanation for what I felt when I met him.

Did Eve feel that same way? Did she know that there before her stood the man that God had chosen to be hers? Did she know that this was ‘the right one?’ Of course for Eve there was no other option. She didn’t have to wonder if she was choosing the right one because she wasn’t choosing. She was basically gift wrapped and hand delivered. God took her to Adam. She was a gift that was given to her husband.

There is quite a bit of significance in that to me. Adam wasn’t given to her. Adam wasn’t brought to where Eve was. Adam wasn’t made for her. It was all Eve. She was made for Adam, brought to him, given to him.

What does that say about a wife’s place in her husband’s life?

Eve was the first wife. She experienced and lived in the first marriage there ever was. Did Eve know what it meant to be a wife? Did she know what her place in her husband’s life was? Did she know how important to him she was?

My sister and I have talked many times about some of the differences in marriages today verses those of the past. We’ve speculated on why the divorce rate is what it is today when in the past it was virtually nonexistent. I have no doubt that sin is the culprit. Sin and unregenerate people living out sin-filled lives. But sin existed when divorce was a rarity.

What’s the difference today?

My sister and I have talked of the differences in the way people lived in times past as opposed to the way they live today. Until about the 1950’s most women stayed home, they didn’t have jobs or careers. They got married, had babies, raised children, cooked, cleaned. That was the expected role.

My grandmother has talked to me a lot about what her life was like. When she was raising children it was hard for a woman to feed her kids if she wasn’t married. They didn’t have all the government assistance programs that exist today. Jobs for women were hard to come by and if she did work babysitters were hard to find. Plus, there was a social stigma on women that worked. It was seen as something that wasn’t done.

Women had their place and it wasn’t in the work force. In order to stay in that place they needed a husband to provide for them and their children. They needed someone to take care of them and the family. They needed a provider.

Men in those days didn’t cook or clean, they didn’t share the childrearing tasks. That was women’s work. If a man had children but no wife he had to juggle all those things plus work. A difficult thing to do in a time when daycare’s didn’t exist and men were seen as providers and not the parent doing the caretaking.

The further back in history you go the more you can clearly see the roles of men and women. They were defined. Society expected men to be a certain way and women to be a certain way. They expected marriage to be forever. It wasn’t something that was entered into lightly. When you said ‘I do’ there was no escape plan. Divorce has been an option since the Old Testament but for most of time it came with a stigma. It was socially unacceptable.

If that wasn’t enough to keep couples married the simple fact that they truly needed one another was. They both would have experienced difficulties living without each other. Life was simpler when you were married. I have no doubt there would have been exceptions to that but for the most part it held true. It was much easier on a man to come home to a hot meal and clean clothes after working in the fields all day than it was to come home and cook his own meal and wash his clothes. It was easier for a woman to care for her home and children when she wasn’t having to struggle to bring in the funds to support them. They needed each other.

How did Eve feel as she was presented to Adam? Did she know how much she would need him? I have no doubt that she needed him a great deal. Just imagine being the only two people in the world…how much would you need the other person, no matter who they were?

Did Eve know as she met Adam for the first time that he was her husband? Did she know what that meant? Did she understand that God made her just for him? She wasn’t made for any reason other than to be a helper to Adam. God didn’t say…let me make woman so she can have babies. He didn’t say…let me make woman so that she can work. He made woman because it wasn’t good that man should be alone.

How did Eve feel as she was basically handed over to Adam? Did she know why she had been made? Was she excited to start her life with this man that she was being given to? Unlike women today, and in the past, Eve went into her marriage with no outside influences, no preexisting ideas of what marriage should be. She had no ideas of what she should be or what she wanted in life. She went into marriage with a blank slate. Here was the man she was made for. This was her life.

No options.

God simply made her and delivered her to her husband.

How did she feel? In that moment what thoughts and feelings were going through her? Was she happy? Did she look forward to getting to know Adam? Was she afraid she might fail at the task she was given?

And when God gave her to Adam and Adam said…this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh... how did Eve feel? Here she was handed into her future by God and her husband said at last.

His response was that of a man that had been waiting for her and here she was. Finally. At last. His reply told her she was wanted. It told her Adam was glad to have her as his wife.

How did she feel to be greeted like that?

I know there are things my husband has said that have told me how much he wanted me as his wife. When he’s said things that tell me that it makes me feel loved, wanted, longed for, cherished. As if he had said…at last.

And I know how I feel when he says things like that. Is that how Eve felt? Did she know from the way he said…at last…that she was wanted and welcomed?

What was it like for Eve?