“At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.” Genesis 3:7 (NLT)

 

In just a moment EVERYTHING had changed – and not for the better.

 

Everything from that point was Lost – and could NEVER be regained. We comfort ourselves in the bad times by thinking of the good times and knowing that they will return again.  How must Eve have felt? She had no similar experiences and therefore no such hope. The overwhelming feelings of guilt, shame and fear must have been unbearable!

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Innocence lost can never be regained. There is forgiveness, but there are also consequences. And, boy, what consequences! Eve’s relationship with Adam, with her Creator, with nature, and with the world as she had always known it was irrevocably altered.

 

Eve’s spontaneous actions mirror our reactions to our own sin. This is the Eve with whom we commiserate. We may not fully appreciate the perfect Eve in Paradise, but we sure can relate to the fallen Eve! Just like us, she tried to hide. Then she blamed someone else. Then she received just condemnation. Then she received undeserved mercy. Then she received hope.

 

Eve would find that “having her eyes opened” was not what she had imagined. Eve had no concept of shame. Now she would see it in her husband’s eyes and experience it in her own soul. Eve had no concept of pain. Now she would feel it in her daily life and suffer from it as she brought forth new lives. Eve had no concept of Death. Now she would see it in the animals whose lives God took to clothe her nakedness. She would eventually experience it firsthand in the actions of her firstborn son who would take the life of her second.

 

Eve’s children would never comprehend the unfathomable joy that had once been the only life she had ever known. They would continuously fall into the sin and temptations she had unwittingly introduced to the world. With every evil she saw, she had to think, “This is my fault,” always haunted by the knowledge it didn’t have to be this way.

 

Thanks be to God this is not the end of Eve’s story! With sin comes consequences, but there can also be forgiveness and a new hope. In fact, God chose this occasion to reveal His ultimate Divine Remedy in the form of a Messiah who would die for the sins of all the future offspring of Adam and Eve: “You and this woman will hate each other; your descendants and hers will always be enemies. One of hers will strike you on the head, and you will strike him on the heel." (Genesis 3:15 CEV)

 

As Adam and Eve began their new lives outside the Eden they had always known, they remained loyal to one another and faithful to their Creator. At the birth of her first child, Eve cried out ecstatically “With the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man!”  She knew that God had not abandoned her and was still working all things for her good. Though we may have lost an earthly Paradise, we can trust in the promise that there is an Eternal Paradise awaiting all who put their faith in the Blessed Seed who has crushed the Serpent’s head.