The Masterpiece of MotherhoodSample

Eve's eyes were opened to things she never knew before. Before she had known good, but now she also knew evil. The result of her disobedience was a curse that she would experience pain in childbearing and have to leave the garden paradise, never to return. Before the curse, the woman was nameless, but immediately after she received the name “Eve,” meaning the mother of all the living. Not only did this curse affect her, but it also defined her. It was her very name. She was still seen, known, and loved, but the intimate relationship with God was severed. God had not changed the rules; He had simply upheld them in justice. As we look at the world around us, it is far from the Eden that God created. We still suffer under Eve’s curse, but the pain of childbearing goes far beyond the contractions of labor. As mothers, we experience pain in every stage of bearing our children into the world. We allow the role of motherhood to rule us and define us, become our name. We hurt when our children hurt. We drown in guilt when our children stray from God. We long for children, but struggle to conceive. When we have to bury a child or never get to meet one that we carry inside, it is devastating. Yes, the pain of bearing children into this cursed world is excruciating. And yet, that is not the end of this story.