Our First Parents

Thoughts on Adam and Eve:

I have so many I’m not sure I can put them into one blog

This is not just a creation story, it is a story of what it means to be human and how God interacts with His children. It speaks to the universal experiences of loss, alienation, struggle, and hope. It has been saved over thousands of years to help us to understand suffering, evil (including warnings of how Satan works to bind mankind), and the very real possibilities of finding our way home. It testifies that God is real, that He assigned Jehovah to guard, guide, rule and save this world and His children, and that He has never left His children alone. He has always been there to lift, strengthen, teach, and transform us as we look to Him and live.

God didn’t just create a man and a woman. He created A Family. They have always been a pair. Everything was expected to be done TOGETHER. Adam was their name – the very first surname. The story continues with a choice. Once Adam and Eve are created, they are given commandments. To some, these commandments seem to be complete polar opposites. Avoid these two trees (one that tastes bitter and one that tastes sweet) and to multiply and replenish the earth. Light and Dark existed in the Garden of Eden. Satan didn’t just put the idea into Eve’s mind. He convincingly commands her to eat of the tree of knowledge (the bitter fruit). Lehi reminds us that Eve understood agency (2 Nephi 2:27). She thoughtfully considered all of her known information and reasoned through the ramifications of the choices placed before her. She is wise. Adam is not a fool either. He understands the consequences of the choice. He, too, is wise. They willingly took fate into their own hands and entered into the dark and scary experience of mortality so that mankind could be. Now this is real courage.

They were kicked out together… not just a man and a woman, but as our “first parents.”

They struggled. Getting kicked out of the garden was hard. Their reaction was shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance and a sincere desire to seek God and to live as He instructed. I completely get it. I feel the same. Everything wasn’t given to them all at once.They learned line upon line too. The Fall included them not remembering well and they had to search for God and for meaning.

Figuring out a body was hard. It felt (still does for me) heavy and dark, especially compared to a body of light ( I am assuming) that they experienced in the Garden of Eden. They lived in The Light. The Fall had to include a change in the body, because death was introduced with The Fall. Once they partake of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, they understand darkness, vulnerability, and mortality. They experienced a separation from God.

Adam and Eve were resilient. They had to quickly learn to survive in a harsh world, finding shelter, food, ways to cloth themselves, and to work the land to provide for their needs.  They were now separated in these tasks. They both had to work. They had to work side by side and to work together. There was no “your work” vs. “my work.” It was “our work.”

I am beginning to see a pattern here in how marriage is supposed to work. Too bad I didn’t get it 36 years ago. Thank goodness John is patient. LOL.

I love that they are both insistent that God stays engaged with mankind after The Fall. They may not remember everything, but they remember what is important. God doesn’t leave them to their fate (even if Satan tries hard to convince them that God did ditch them in Hell). God continues to guide, teach, and comfort them in their trials. Angels come and teach them essential skills. They were visited by The Word. He led them. They trusted Him. They waited for Him to instruct them. He establishes promises (covenants) that account for human weaknesses (due to The Fall) that direct them to His divine purpose. Consequences are transformed from punishment to teaching moments. God promises they will one day be able to return to paradise; a future redeemer (The Word himself) will come into mortality and undo the curse and conquer spiritual and temporal death. This wouldn’t come in Adam’s lifetime but it would come. God’s delays are not denials.

This story also teaches that Satan is REAL. He didn’t stop in the garden. He continues to pursue Adam and Eve – and us, their descendants. He appears as “an angel of light,” with “flashes of fire,” as Adam “original creator.” He changes up his tactics when his efforts don’t get him what he wants. He attacks through appetites (the fruit), through pride (appearing as an angel of light), and false authority (claiming to be the original creator and ruler of the world). 

Hmm. Interesting. His method was the same for Abraham, Moses, and even Jesus.

However, Adam and Eve face him in this spiritual warfare with their weapons – prayer, repentance, and teachings from God. They ask God to deliver them from the hands of Satan (boy! Have my prayers changed in the past 2 weeks!). The struggle is real, yet agency – the ability to choose between two opposing forces remains intact. Agency becomes a balance between outside influences and personal responsibility within our mortal experience.

This story also teaches the sacred nature of the body. The body is a “good” creation. God so declared it. How we treat this body matters. How we use the body matters. The greatest commandments that have been broken and reaped that most severe consequences are commandments regarding the care and use of the body.

I have more thoughts from this week’s Come Follow Me reading, but that should be a different blog post. For now, I will focus on learning from “our first parents” by strengthening my relationships within my family, turning to the Lord for guidance and instructions, and praying for deliverance form the opposing forces attempting to keep me from seeing the face of God.