16 To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

21 And the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

— Genesis 3:16-17, 21

19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope

21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

— Romans 8:19-21

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and salvation from Christ to you.

Sin first shattered God’s creation in a similar exchange. God placed the first human couple in a perfect place and in perfect relationship with Himself and one another. Adam and Eve sinned, exchanging a perfect relationship with God for the false promise of attaining Godlike perfection from the evil liar, the serpent Satan. All their descendants, all human beings ever born, share the consequences of their rebellion. Their disobedience brought death, suffering, and separation from God into the world, fracturing the harmony of creation and placing all humanity under the curse of sin.

This traumatic and heartbreaking separation from God is known as the Fall. Even now, the Fall echoes throughout humanity because God’s revelation confronts our sin. In our fallen state, we want almost anything more than the true God. This idolatry fuels humanity’s downward slide and God’s wrath. Yet even in that moment of judgment, God promised a future Redeemer who would crush the serpent’s head and restore the broken relationship. This act of rebellion set the stage for the entire story of redemption that unfolds throughout the Bible.