Well, I’m back after a nearly two-year absence since my first, and only, blog entry. I guess my question was answered by the 52 responses although nearly all were really just solicitations for online services. But, hey, they at least noticed – or their robo computers did.

Anyway, I had what I think is a unique insight a while back about the actions of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Yes, I capitalized Garden because I believe that God created the world and actually created a likeness of Himself in Adam as well as his companion, Eve. I know that it is not popular in America to come out as a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, but popularity has never been a good barometer for measuring what is right and wrong – just ask any German who lived through the Hitler era.

I chose the title of this entry to represent my recent insight. Eve was created to complete Adam and to live with him in the Garden a blissful life full of sustenance and joy. In that sense, Eve was pro-life; she wanted to enjoy all that God had brought to life in all its fullness. Since this is why God created her, she was ready to live out her earthly life span in communion with Him and Adam and all the living creatures that God had already created to inhabit this perfect place. In short, she was willing to live and let live as God intended.

Here is where the story gets sad.

Despite all the advantages of living out a life blessed by God with abundance and security, Eve wanted more. She wanted a choice in living life her own way. Her focus shifted from communing with God to separating from God – becoming her own woman, making her own choices apart from God. This pride caused a separation of the created from the Creator.  While she still walked in the protective surroundings of the Garden, she desired the ability to explore other paths in life. The serpent’s reasoning that God was somehow holding out on her in not letting her choose good or evil caused her fall into deception. The serpent’s original, reverse-psychology lie that God had told her not to eat of any tree in the Garden had planted a seed of doubt in her as to why this particular tree was to be any different . After all, if she ate of this tree, she would have a choice in how she lived her life even if that meant the death of her up-to-now blissful existence.

So, Eve became pro-choice.

In directly disobeying God in hopes of creating a brighter future for herself, she ate. Her immediate reaction was relief at how good the fruit tasted, but at the same time, she wanted to make sure that others supported her decision, so she offered the choice to Adam. Without any apparent hesitation, he supported her decision by eating the same fruit so that he, too, could now have choice. At that moment, both experienced the inevitable reaction of a bad decision: shame and fear.

And now the insight: there is a direct parallel between the decision that Eve faced that day int the Garden and the decision of every woman who has ever considered abortion. It is my firm conviction that God’s intent in bringing forth life in any woman’s womb is to create the opportunity for an unbreakable bond between mother and child, a relationship that can last through the lives of both. He creates that new life in a process that still awes any serious student of medicine and prospers that life in an environment that gives sustenance to the child and joy to the mother. But when a mother  allows premature disruption of that process through  her own choosing, she puts her own desires first and honors choice over life. A relationship that once existed between mother and child can no longer prosper or fulfill its destiny.

Eve moved from being pro-life to being pro-choice, setting in motion consequences that not only haunted her the rest of her life, but also literally changed the course of human history.