Eve. The mother of all living things

I'm sitting outside after spending the morning with one of my best fiends. She dropped me off back at my house as little bit ago and I decided to sit outside and pull out the Bible my Nonna got me for Christmas. The Bible is bright purple and the front reads, 'Spirt Led Woman's Bible,' in all pretty cursive, I am describing the outside of this Bible to you because I need you to know how much it does not sound like a Bible I would choose. However, I sat down picked up the purple bible, looked at my old brown torn apart one and I walked back outside with the purple one in hand. I opened, tried to read John and then felt like I was supposed to start at the beginning-- the very beginning. It was a letter from the author of this Bible. She is a woman and she got other women to write encouraging things all throughout this book. She talked about the different studies you could do, the prayers, she ever talked about journaling your thoughts-- which I loved because I love doing that. Well I say I do, I haven't written in a journal in awhile, just on here or on the notepad on my phone.

Onto, my story. I titled this entry Eve.
Because Eve is who I read about today. When I mention Eve in the back of my mind I still hear the woman at my church say something super awkward about puberty. She said, "we can just blame Eve for that." I felt uncomfortable and was unsure what she meant. Its not a big deal- I've only held onto the comment for years. So pushing past that, Eve. The meaning of her name is life. The Old Testament tells us that she is the 'mother of all living.' Powerful.

Recently I've been on a bit of a feminist kick. You can blame Leslie Knope. I have enjoyed researching and studying women who have strength. Who are strong. Who are strong with a man and strong without. Women who can handle their own, but also women who are strong enough to date someone. Women who have endured childbirth and talk about their children like they are rockstars. I love it. I love womens rights, but the topless marching in New York last week was a bit much. Most of it is a bit much, I just love when a woman says something clever back to a man who asks a dumb question, or a woman who can respond to a cat call quickly.

Eve.

I feel like she would be this. Now, I just finished reading about her ten minutes ago and I am still processing as I write, but God created her from a mans being. He literally removed a rib from a man and created her. In this Bible it says, "she is a weaker vessel, but there is a inner strength within her."
I love that line for so many reasons. As you read in Genesis you read that God tells both, Adam and Eve, not to eat from the tree of knowledge. But Eve does it and from then on anyone who reads the Bible, only reads her mistake. That's the things though, like most women we think people only remember us for our mistakes so we spend so much time of our lives trying to fix that mistake, when realistically it's gone. Its been forgotten by the one who it mattered to most, our Creator. There is an entry in here by Rita Springer it reads, 'Eve is usually remembered by her one big mistake, but she is so much more than that. And so are we.' That speaks volumes to me, to my heart. Eve was a mother, she was a wife and she was the mother of all living things. Yes, she ate the fruit and disobeyed, but God gave her the gift of choice and he wanted her to obey Him, but she didn't. He was angry, He was hurt, but He never stopped loving her. He was more angry at the enemy for lying to Eve and pressuring her into eating the fruit. That's how God works. He created us and roots for us every single second of every single day, just like he did Eve.

To that lady who made the awkward comment about Eve when I was young. It will not longer resinate in my brain. She was a strong woman and her childbirth pains were doubled for her children as was yours. She was the first wife in all of creation, the first mother and the first lady. Wow, the first lady. That says a lot.