Becoming Eve Draft

Becoming Eve

This year has been quite a journey for me. At the start of the year, I asked God to do something amazing with me, but He never works by our rules and instead, He decided to do something amazing in me. In addition to all the normal joys and trials that come with senior year, I have also experienced some incredibly deep friendships, a few hard months of sickness, and a spiritual growth beyond anything I ever could have imagined. I have come to know God’s heart in new and incredible ways, one of them being through Eve.

Playing the part of Eve has been an incredible experience, to say the least. I believe theatre is meant to teach us by illuminating something true. Whether it is a truth about culture, history, humanity, love, pain, loss, or triumph, the theatre has the unique ability to bring these truths to life on a stage. Children of Eden is the telling of a story so old and true that it is still buried deep inside each of us: the story of the fall of mankind ー the story of our perfect union with God ruined. After Adam and Eve ate the apple, everything changed; the perfect union was gone and fear took its place in the story. Darn it, Kristina, Danielle, Maggie, Ginny, Angie, and Anna, why’d you have to go and tempt me?!

The most heart-wrenching scene in the show for me is not the death of Abel or the expulsion from the garden, but the scene when elderly Eve is praying to Father. In the scene, Eve’s words are filled with pain and regret from her sin, yet also carry a sense of great hope. At this point, Eve has finally realized the dire consequences her sin caused, most tragically, the separation of herself and the rest of humanity from God. To have known God in all of His fullness and glory and then to lose relationship with Him must have caused Eve so much pain. When she finally gets to speak to Him a final time, she cries out, “Father! I’ve missed you!” characterizing her despair at the loss of His friendship. This scene brings me to tears because Eve’s pain and guilt are so deep that I myself feel her loss.

One thing I have learned from playing the part of Eve is that her first sin still plays a part in our lives today. Too often I find myself choosing against the good, thinking it will make me happy, and I ask myself why: why do I choose things I know will not fill me? I have found the cause to be the exact thing that drove Eve to eat the apple years ago: the fear that God is holding out on me. I forget His goodness and I forget His love, just like Eve, and somehow I think that my high school, hormonal, human self knows better, so I turn my back on Him.

But what I have also learned through Children of Eden is that the love of the Father reaches beyond our fear. The love of the Father does not stop at our sins, mistakes, or failures; instead, it pursues us through both our failures and triumphs until we finally come running back to Him, realizing that relationship with Him is the only thing that will bring us happiness. With the recognition of His love comes a joy that persists through any pain, sadness, or hardship. And the best part is: there is nothing we can do to stop His reckless, abounding love for us.

His love will not stop at our sins; His love will not stop at our failures; His love will not stop at our ignorance; His love will not stop at our defiance; His love will not stop at our mistakes; His love will not stop at any of the barriers we might try to put up. His love has not, does not, and will not stop. Unlike any love we will ever know, His love will forever and always reach far, far beyond.