25 Adam had sexual relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to another son. She named him Seth, for she said, “God has granted me another son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.”
Genesis 4:25
Dear God, I don’t think we spend enough time with Even and Adam and the impact the Cain and Abel story had on them as individuals and as a couple. Now, I understand that Adam and Eve might be representative of the first people. I’m not going to argue any of that here. I’m going to work with what the author of Genesis gives me–what you give me–and you gave me this story to consider.
Parenting involves a lot of pain and disappointment. I think of the parents I know who are struggling with their adult children. Drug addiction. Suicide. Estrangement. Imprisonment. Mental illness. Drug overdose. And then I think back to when their child was born and them holding that baby. How happy they were. How everyone celebrated. Even in the poorest of circumstances, there is joy. And then life sometimes happens. Parents fail and make mistakes. The child is sometimes exposed to things over which the parents have no control. Then there’s just free will. Personality. Temptations. Illness. Addiction. Life really is this huge gamble, and none of us has any idea of how it will turn out.
In the case of Eve and Adam, their first-born killed their second-born. What kind of pain did this cause? Well, there’s no way I can imagine the pain. We know it was there. We know that there must have been some level at which they blamed themselves. Maybe they blamed each other. But there was pain.
Thankfully, Seth seems to have turned out okay. In fact, it says in the next verse that is was during his lifetime that people began to worship you by name. What an interesting thing to say.
Father, I know there will be a lot of women in pain over the next few days. Fathers too. And then there will be children who are in pain because of a lost mother or a mother that hurt or abandoned them in some way. I know some of these moms. I know some of these children. I pray that you will use all these instances of pain to help us to dig into you. Lean into you for comfort. Take your comfort and carry it to others. Learn how to worship you and love others better.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Emails to God 