What Eve tell

UNSEEN, UNSOUGHT, AND UNCERTAIN

We feel unseen, even by those who are closest to us. We feel unsought—that no one has the passion or the courage to pursue us, to get past our messiness to find the woman deep inside. And we feel uncertain—uncertain what it even means to be a woman; uncertain what it truly means to be feminine; uncertain if we are or ever will be.

THE HEART OF A WOMAN

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life”

Think about it: God created you as a woman. “God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27 NKJV). Whatever it means to bear God’s image, you do so as a woman. Female. That’s how and where you bear his image. Your feminine heart has been created with the greatest of all possible dignities—as a reflection of God’s own heart. You are a woman to your soul, to the very core of your being. And so the journey to discover what God meant when he created woman in his image— when he created you as his woman—that journey begins with your heart.

It is nearing the end of the sixth day, the end of the Creator’s great labor, as Adam steps forth, the image of God, the triumph of his work. He alone is pronounced the son of God. Nothing in creation even comes close. Picture Michelangelo’s David. He is—magnificent. Truly the masterpiece seems complete. And yet, the Master says that something is not good, not right. Something is missing—and that something is Eve.

Woman is the crown of creation—the most intricate, dazzling creature on earth. She has a crucial role to play, a destiny of her own.

And she, too, bears the image of God. But in a way that only the feminine can speak. What can we learn from her? God wanted to reveal something about himself, so he gave us Eve. When you are with a woman, ask yourself, what is she telling me about God? It will open up wonders for you.

Eve is created because things were not right without her. Something was

not good. “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen. 2:18 NKJV).

To be specific, what was “not good” was the fact that the man was “alone.” “It is not good for the human to be alone; I shall make him a sustainer beside him.”

Most women define themselves in terms of their relationships, and the quality they deem those relationships to have. I am a mother, a sister, a daughter, a friend. Or, I am alone. I’m not seeing anyone right now, or my children aren’t calling, or my friends seem distant. This is not a weakness in women—it is a glory. A glory that reflects the heart of God.

The vast desire and capacity a woman has for intimate relationships tells us of God’s vast desire and capacity for intimate relationships. In fact, this may be the most important thing we ever learn about God— that he yearns for relationship with us. “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God” (John 17:3 NKJV). The whole story of the Bible is a love story between God and his people. He yearns for us. He cares. He has a tender heart.

Eve—God’s message to the world in feminine form— invites us to romance. Through her God makes romance a priority of the universe.

So God endows Woman with certain qualities which are essential to relationship, qualities that speak of God. She is inviting. She is vulnerable. She is tender. She embodies mercy. She is also fierce and fiercely devoted. As the old saying goes, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” That’s just how God acts when he isn’t chosen. “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not share your affection with any other god!” (Ex. 20:5 NLT). A woman’s righteous jealousy speaks of the jealousy of God for us. Tender and inviting, intimate and alluring, fiercely devoted. O yes, our God has a passionate, romantic heart. Just look at Eve.

God creates Eve to keep relationship at the center of life. It’s central to a woman’s design—and her reason for being. Do you feel like you’ve been keeping relationship a high priority? What would you want to do to make it more central to your life—and the lives of those you love?

Key point: Eve has a glory for relationship.

Call it the Human Mission—to be all and do all God sent us here to do. And notice: the mission to be fruitful and conquer and hold sway is given both to Adam and to Eve.

ezer kenegdo( help meet)- sustainer beside him.” The word ezer is used only 20 other places in the entire Old Testament. And in every other instance the person being described is God himself, when you desperately need him to come through for you.

Most of the contexts are life and death, by the way, and God is your only hope. Your ezer. If he is not there beside you, you are dead. A better translation, therefore, of ezer would be “life-saver.” Kenegdo means alongside, or opposite to, a counterpart. You see, the life God calls us to is not a safe life.

God calls us to a life involving frequent risks and many dangers. Why else would we need him to be our ezer? You don’t need a life-saver if your mission is to be a couch potato. You need an ezer when your life is in constant danger.

That longing in the heart of a woman to share life together as a great adventure—that comes straight from the heart of God, who also longs for this. He does not want to be an option in our lives. He does not want to be an appendage, a tag-along. Neither does any woman. God is essential. He wants us to need him—desperately. Eve is essential. She has an irreplaceable role to play. And so you’ll see that women are endowed with fierce devotion, an ability to suffer great hardships, a vision to make the world a better place.

Beauty is the essence of God.

Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful. Stop for a moment and let that sink in. We’re so used to evaluating everything (and everyone) by their usefulness, this thought will take a minute or two to begin to dawn on us. Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful. Which is to say, beauty is in and of itself a great and glorious good, something we need in large and daily doses (for our God has seen fit to arrange for this). Nature at the height of its glory shouts Beauty is Essential ! revealing that Beauty is the essence of God.

Beauty is powerful. It may be the most powerful thing on earth. It is dangerous. Because it matters. Every experience of beauty points to [eternity].

FIRST, BEAUTY SPEAKS.

And what does beauty say to us? Think of what it is like to be caught in traffic for over an hour: Horns blaring, people shouting obscenities. Exhaust pouring in your windows, suffocating you. Then remember what it’s like to come into a beautiful place, a garden or a meadow or a quiet beach. There is room for your soul. It expands. You can breathe again. You can rest. It is good. All is well. I sit outside on a summer evening and just listen and behold and drink it all in, and my heart begins to quiet, and peace begins to come into my soul. My heart tells me that “All will be well,” as Julian of Norwich concluded: “And all manner of things will be well.” That is what beauty says: All shall be well.

What does your heart feel when you come into a spacious, lovely place?

Being with a woman who is at rest, a woman comfortable within her own beauty, is an enjoyable experience. She is trusting God, not striving to become beautiful, but allowing his beauty to more fully inhabit her. Have you had the experience of being with a woman who was stressed, striving, worried? And how did you feel around her?

Have you had the pleasure of being with a woman who is resting in God and knowing that all will be well? How did you feel around her?

BEAUTY ALSO INVITES.

Recall what it is like to hear a truly beautiful piece of music. It captures you; you want to sit down and just drink it in. We buy the CD and play it many times over. (This is not visual, showing us that beauty is deeper than looks.) Music like this commands your attention, invites you to come more deeply into it.

The same is true of a beautiful garden, or a scene in nature. You want to enter in, explore, partake of it, feast upon it. We describe a great book as “captivating.” It draws you in, holds your attention. You can’t wait to get back to it, spend time with it.

Beauty nourishes. It is a kind of food our souls crave. A woman’s breast is among the loveliest of all God’s works, and it is with her breast she nourishes a baby—a stunning picture of the way in which Beauty itself nourishes us. In fact, a woman’s body is one of the most beautiful of all God’s creations. “Too much of eternity,” as Blake said, “for the eye of man.” It nourishes, offers life. That is such a profound metaphor for Beauty itself. As Lewis said.

Beauty comforts. There is something profoundly healing about it. Have you ever wondered why we send flowers to the bereaved? In the midst of their suffering and loss, only a gift of beauty says enough, or says it right.

Beauty inspires. After beholding all the marvelous wonders of the creation of Narnia (as told in The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis), the cabbie says, “Glory be! I’d have been a better man all my life if I’d known there were things like this!” Or as Jack Nicholson says to Helen Hunt at the end of As Good as It Gets, “You make me want to be a better man.” Isn’t it true? Think of what it might have been like to have been in the presence of a woman like Mother Teresa. Her life was so beautiful, and it called us to something higher.

Beauty is transcendent. It is our most immediate experience of the eternal. Think of what it’s like to behold a gorgeous sunset, or the ocean at dawn. Remember the ending of a great story. We yearn to linger, to experience it all our days. Sometimes the beauty is so deep it pierces us with longing. For what? For life as it was meant to be.

All these things are true for any experience of Beauty. But they are especially true when we experience the beauty of a woman—her eyes, her form, her voice, her heart, her spirit, her life. She speaks all of this far more profoundly than anything else in all creation, because she is incarnate, she is personal. It flows to us from an immortal being. She is beauty through and through. “For where is any author in the world/ Teaches such beauty as a woman’s eye?” (Shakespeare). Beauty is, without question, the most essential and the most misunderstood of all of God’s qualities—of all feminine qualities, too. We know it has caused untold pain in the lives of women. But even there something is speaking. Why so much heartache over beauty? We don’t ache over being geniuses or fabulous hockey players. Women ache over the issue of beauty—they ache to be beautiful, to believe they are beautiful, and they worry over keeping it if ever they can find it.

Every woman has a beauty to unveil. Every woman. Because she bears the image of God. She doesn’t have to conjure it, go get it from a salon, have plastic surgery or a breast implant. No, beauty is an essence that is given to every woman at her creation.

O Jesus, come into this place in my heart. Help me to believe that you have given me your beauty. That I am a woman through and through, and because of your creation in me, I, too, have a heart for romance, I, too, am a life-saver, and I do have beauty to offer the world. I ask this in your name. Amen.

Eve was given to the world as the incarnation of a beautiful, captivating God—a life-offering, life-saving lover, a relational specialist, full of tender mercy and hope. Yes, she brought a strength to the world, but not a striving, sharp-edged strength. She was inviting, alluring, captivating.