Genesis 3:20
20The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
We are not accustomed to saying anything good about Adam. He is the one who is responsible for bringing sin into the world. All the horrors and atrocities and all sin, big or small, trace their roots back to that one event of eating fruit God said not to eat. And Adam rightly gets labelled with being responsible for opening the door to it all. But Adam lived a long time after he and his wife were kicked out of Eden and not everything he did was wrong.
Adam named his wife. This is an act of leadership. A major problem when the fruit was eaten was that Adam was not leading the way he knew he should have. We now see that he is seeking to rectify that. He names his wife. Naming is an act of authority. But Adam is not flaunting his. He names her Eve – mother. What would you name someone who had just helped you get kicked out of Paradise?
The name Adam gives his wife reflects love for her, hope for the future, partnership with her. There is an indication here that Adam is going to be a better husband than he was when they were confronted by the serpent. He has stopped blaming her. He is going to do what God called him to do in the first place.
The mark of the real Christian is repentance and the mark of repentance is real change. Adam shows it here. Today, as you think on things related to New Year’s, resolve to make real change. Be like Adam who learned from his past mistake and benefitted his family rather than continuing to make things worse.
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