Eve: The Mother of All Mothers

Mysterious Eve, the first woman. Who was she? What was she like? Even secular scientists acknowledge the existence of a Mitochondrial Eve, or the ancestor from whom all living things descended. The secrets of DNA open the truth that the Bible has long declared.

God created Adam and then put him to sleep so that He could create Eve from Adam’s rib. They were created in perfect harmony for each other.

I try to imagine what it would be like to be created as a fully grown woman with no instructions about how to be a woman or how to behave. Eve did not have a mother to teach her, but she did walk with God Himself. 

She also had the perfect man, albeit the only man. She walked in the garden with God in perfect paradise. She experienced none of the stresses we deal with today, until she disobeyed God. She ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam joined her without a word of protest. That choice brought separation from God and banishment from the Garden of Eden.

All of a sudden, Adam and Eve’s life became incredibly difficult. Adam was required to work the ground, full of thorns and thistles, and would only eat through the sweat of his brow. For Eve, bearing children would bring severe labor pains. Instead of face-to-face talks with God, there was distance between man and God. Her children give us the first record of a bitter sibling dispute ending with Cain murdering Able. There is no indication that Eve’s life got any easier after the blow of losing her son.

The last recorded words we have of Eve are after she gave birth, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” (Genesis 4:1). God wants us to remember that she still cried out to Him for help after her sin had brought separation. She never forgot the God she walked with in the cool of the evening. 

Perhaps your mother wasn’t exactly what every girl dreams. Perhaps she was absent, or present in body but unable to care for her children. Not everyone has a mother who knows just the right thing to say or packs thoughtful notes with lunch. Some mothers can be very critical or lose control of their anger and emotions. 

I often wish that my own children didn´t get such a large dose of my sin. I regret that my kids were such close observers to the sins that hindered me on so many occasions. As mothers, no one feels our failures as much as our own children.

When a mother fails, her sin affects not just herself, but the whole family. Think about Eve. How often have we blamed her for falling into sin and taking us with her? 

It’s a wonderful privilege to be a mother, but the responsibility is a heavy one. Not many of us can be confused with the biblical ideal of virtue and wisdom found in the Proverbs 31 woman. We must give other mothers the grace we also desperately need.

My mother spent the bulk of her childhood in an orphanage. Her mother was certainly absent. Even so, Mom was a good mother, kind and compassionate.

I’m so glad my mother loved me well, but there were things she missed. God provided many other women in my life who could fill those gaps.

My paternal aunts each had their own gifts, which they shared with me. Aunt Brenda helped me learn to drive. Aunt Ann listened to me intentionally, showing me how to step out of my reality and listen to someone else’s. Aunt Margaret taught me the southern art of serving a hot Sunday dinner to guests within a half hour of arriving home.

Each of these women, and many more, are so important to me. I counted on them and they were gracious enough to step out of their routines to include me. They were generous with their mothering.

My husband and I stepped into the world of foster parenting with so many unknowns. We weren’t stellar parents, but we’re willing to try. Being a foster parent is an amazing way to include children whose mothers aren’t able to care for them.

I didn’t know much about one little foster girl’s past. I just knew that any time we closed a door she panicked. So, we learned to keep doors wide open.  It was during bath-time that I learned how much this 7-year-old lacked language skills. She had not been taught parts of her body or how to count her precious toes, but she did know how to giggle! 

My heart ached at the many things missed by a mother I had never met. It was easy to be angry and to judge her failings as a mother, but filling in those gaps and mothering someone else’s child brought more joy than I could have ever imagined.

I thank God for my own mother, who humbly walked through motherhood. She didn’t give me much of the usual training, but the memory of her early mornings under a lamp with a Bible calling out to her heavenly Father is burned into my soul.

Like Eve, she called out to her Father in the midst of her anguish. She reminds me of gracious forgiveness as she dealt with scars from her own childhood. She still had enough space for grace. Such grace does not come from within ourselves; it must come from God Himself. 

Someday, we will meet Eve. We will all walk together calling out to the Father, not in anguish, but in the cool of the evening, face-to-face with Him.

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By Laura Dye

Laura is an author and missionary with FamilyLife, known for her commitment to strengthening marriages and families through Christ-centered ministry in Latin America. She is wife to Roger, mom to four remarkable adult children, suegra to two equally remarkable daughters-in-law, and Lola to three hilarious grandboys who live much too far away. Roger and Laura have also been blessed by several foster children. They now reside in Winnsboro, South Carolina.

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