SCRIPTURE Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Genesis 3:17
THOUGHT It was important to me — like a spiritual epiphany — the day I noticed that what is cursed in the story of the fall of mankind is not man and woman. The ground is cursed because of human choice and the serpent is cursed because of deceit. To man and woman, God doesn’t use the word “cursed;” he speaks of the results of their woeful disregard of his instructions. Pain where there should be joy. Pain in bearing fruit from womb and fruit from ground. Pain in the sacred task of co-ruling creation. Pain in the certainty of death; all their efforts would go to the dust. They would be removed from the beautiful, perfect garden – and there would be no more access to the tree of life. The order God spoke out of chaos had been disrupted. The joy of man and woman creating in his image had been broken. Shalom had been shattered, and he understands the consequences.
As I survey current culture as well as history, I wonder whether the dis-ease I see between men and women reflects an unconscious living into the fall, rather than the original intent of God. If indeed we were cursed, I could understand the pointlessness of striving against it – but in God’s incredible grace, we weren’t. God did not subject us to discord, saying to Eve, “you’ll never get out of this pain between you and Adam because you are cursed,” he said that bad decisions were going to grow bad fruit which intuitively means we must fight harder to get to good fruit.
Jesus came to heal the great divide between God and humans and begin reversing the curse. As the exact representation of God, he set the example by treating both women and men with respect. He lived into God’s original intent, not the fall. Men and women can cooperate with his only great commandment: to love well, fighting for the original intent of God, despite a world that is dis-ordered and dis-eased. We need to seek reconciliation, fighting side-by-side the weeds and pain that choke families, marriages, vocations, and life.
PRAYER Jesus, exact representation of God, we are desperate for healing between men and women. Show us the way toward your original intent of co-ruling creation, and save our relationships, marriages, and families from the curse of weeds.
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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
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