Eve's Prayer (1 Timothy 2 )

                                                                   Eve's Prayer

Paul says pray. 

To Eve's daughter 

and man "not deceived" he instructs, 

pray for a quiet and peaceful life. 

Pray for all men. 

Give thanks.

Give supplication.

Pray for intercession. 

Paul says,

to Eve's daughters

adorn not yourselves 

in costly array, 

rather dress yourselves in modesty 

and good works. 

Paul says, 

to Eve's sons, 

Pray everywhere,

with holy hands 

lifted up. 

Paul says, 

daughters should 

take lesson from Mother Eve

and exist 

in silence

in subjection

in teaching

in the rank of being "deceived." 

As a woman I pray

with my handmaiden hands, holy and pure.

I leave my wrath and doubt 

in Eden's Garden

For Paul to consider. 

For my faith is not shamefaced. 

But doth profess godliness. 

And my face doest reflect Mother Eve's choice of life.

I learn with quiet sobriety

not for my deception, 

but for the joy of God's plan for me, 

a woman, a daughter of Eve. 

In charity,

in holiness, 

do I bear the children of the world. 

Knowing that in the birthing of 

God's children God hast saved me, 

a woman, 

to steady the faith,

to silent the subjection, 

and to teach the authority

all as I rock..... the cradle. 

Most assuredly God knew and set to intercede for us when 

from the womb of Eve's daughter Mary,

came the Lord Jesus Christ 

born to mediate,

between the "one God" and man, 

even the sons of Eve. 

I enjoyed Paul's exhortation to prayer. I felt he prayed for the family. He wanted the women to not give heed to the temptations that would cause disruption in the society that depended on a "quiet and peaceable life." He understood the power of women in society and wanted to quiet it so that the church would go forth without disruption.

But did he consider the role of women as the bearers of children. If he had considered this role in a more eternal perspective, he might have understood what I believe, that Eve had choice. She exercised her choice not out of pure deception but out of desire to bring children into the world. How long did she live in the Garden? a thousand years? ?? we don't know. But we do know that she was able to watch over other life. She must have understood the need for procreation. I do not believe that her "deception" was as naive as it appears. I believe she knew that a choice between life eternal and life in the Garden had to be made. One required the sacrifice of the other.

One bestowed gifts that the other could not. With her choice to partake of the fruit of life came the responsibility of bearing life and thus began the journey to eternal life. It would require that God's son receive a body. It would require that someone be able to bear life and intercede between heaven and earth, between body and spirit. As a woman she accepted this role. Man has often scoffed at our childbirth pain. Weather this is because of their inability to comprehend it, or their jealousy at not being able to entertain it, does not matter. Paul, as a man was limited in his understanding of the joy and the saving element that childbirth brings.

Before my children were born, my life's meaning was at best temporal. I enjoyed my life. I loved learning, and enjoyed others immensely, but after the birth of my children, I began an earnest seeking of God's eternal plan. And not alone, but rather with the companion and as a family.