How had it all happened? What had she started?

 

 

It seemed like such a good idea at the time; the right idea. But then, as soon as Adam also took a bite, Eve knew. They both knew. They had been so very, very wrong. And now the damage was spinning out of control. Those intimate conversations with the Lord were no more. Home was no longer home.

 

 

And now this.

 

 

Her older son killing her younger. The unraveling wouldn’t stop and she knew the falling apart had started with her. As Ephesians 2 describes the situation, Eve was now dead in trespasses and sins, “following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Ephesians 2:3 (ESV)

 

 

Was there to be no hope?

 

 

Have you ever experienced a pain similar to Eve’s?  The knowing that it began with you. If only you had made the right choice when you had the chance.

 

 

But you didn’t.

 

 

And now …

 

 

It doesn’t have to be just big things. The small habit that grew bigger than you intended. The distance that grew more than the day before. Our mind drags us back to all the tiny things, one wrong choice after another, that led to this. The hundreds of tiny failures that have brought us to this hurt we are experiencing today. This disappointment. This brokenness. This failure.

 

 

I think I understand Eve a bit. Not the depth of pain she would have experienced with losing a child, but the possible wondering, “Is all this – this huge mess my fault?” We are trained that “success” and “failure” – they all come down to someone. Someone gets the credit and someone takes the blame.

 

The amazing thing is there is One who gets the credit and who took the blame.

 

Jesus. He gets the credit for loving us when we were unlovable and He took the blame for our sin that was not His own.

 

There in the garden, the Perfect Father looked at His imperfect child with … love. See, even as He took the rib from Adam’s side, He was fully aware of the choice Eve would make. The choice against His perfect love and He still chose to create us and to unconditionally love. His was and is a fierce love, a never failing love. “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV)

 

 

Even as the failures of His creation kept coming … Eve’s step, Adam’s collaboration, Cain’s killing of Abel … His love for us, for all of humankind, didn’t diminish. It only grew more and more intense until the pinnacle of His choice. The choice of the cross, where His love was the color red.

 

 

Yes, we have sinned. Each and every one of us. For those of us who have asked for His great forgiveness and surrendered our lives to His control, there is mercy. We are made alive in Him … even while we were yet dead in our transgressions.

 

 

Here in this place, this place of living out our redemption, we can believe that out of this same grace that we have been saved by, our Father will draw the hearts of those we love. The pinnacle of their encounter with Him in their future. As we pray and believe for this day, it may be a test of the depths of that love, when they are the furthest from us, the furthest from Father. Just as God continued His stream of love toward us, even as we ran from Him, may He empower us to fill our depths with His love for us and then release that same love onto those around us.

 

 

All because of and out of His great love for us.

 

Oh, Jesus. Thank you for your great love for me. Thank you for your rich mercy and for making me alive in You. Thank you for saving me by Your grace. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

Do you long to know this forgiveness and love I wrote about? I’d love to help you do just that! Click here to learn how.