These Fallen Wombs
Jessalyn Hutto
In her morning devotional Free Grace and Dying Love, Susannah Spurgeon made this extraordinary statement: “tears are the inheritance of Earth’s children” (emphasis mine).
Who would dare to question the legitimacy of this claim? Who is there that has not felt the sting of sin’s consequences in one way or another. When our first parents, Adam and Eve, chose to rebel against the Creator, the repercussions of their sin were not confined to them. Rather, it affected all of creation and every human who was to come from their fallen line. Their rebellion brought devastation to the world both physically and spiritually.
We quickly see this reality spelled out after Adam and Eve sin. God judges them for their rebellion by decreeing that Eve will now bear children through pain and suffering and her relationship to her husband will be volatile rather than peaceful; Adam’s work will be difficult and unpleasant and the ground itself will be tainted and bring forth less food; death will come to their bodies, and ultimately they will return to the ground from which them came.
The Bible’s continuing narrative reveals a world far different from the paradise of Eden God originally created for man. Generation after generation is marked by evil as men seek after their own pleasure and are overcome by selfishness, anger, and hatred. The creation itself works against man as creatures, weather, and the human body seem to war against the ones who were meant to exercise dominion over all the Earth. Today we look around us and see the effects of a fallen world: earthquakes killing thousands, wars taking countless lives, and women executing the babies within their wombs.
Indeed, tears are the inheritance of all Adam’s children...