Wild Man, Beautiful Woman: The Unanswered Question of Adam and Eve

The first time I remember hearing about Adam and Eve was when I was a teenager. I vaguely remember my mom talking about it. She said Adam and Eve lived in a garden of paradise. Eve came from Adam’s rib, so she is further evolved, and that's why women are smarter than men. I think she was only half kidding.

When I got interested in art and studied art history, I saw all the paintings Renaissance artists created with this subject. The most disturbing to me was Hieronymus Bosch and his depiction of the fall of man. After college, I read the Bible, skipping around and avoiding the Old Testament mostly. But then about 20 years ago, I was reading very carefully and thoroughly the creation story and was struck with my question.

Right there on plain print, it clearly states that Adam was created first, before Eden and the garden. He was created from dust from the wilderness when there were not even shrubs. Then, after Adam, God created Eden and planted a garden in it. After making the rivers, God took Adam from the wild and put him into the carefully curated garden.

Then a bunch of things happened—animals, birds, and more trees. Adam was alone for a while and didn't like it. So God made him a partner. He puts Adam into a deep sleep and makes Eve from Adam’s rib. He wakes up, and here’s the beautiful Eve. Adam is quite happy.

Now the question: Why did God purposely make Adam in the wild before the garden even existed? Eve had never seen the wild state of earth. She only knows the garden. Why didn't God just wait a half of a second and make Adam inside the garden too?

The moment I read this and the words jumped out at me, this questioned buried itself in my heart. I asked everyone I knew if they knew why, and no one did. They didn't seem to care, either, or think that it was an interesting question. I asked pastors, scholars, my mentor Beverly, and I have asked God, but have yet to hear any answer that seems right.

Reckoning with Gender Roles

I think from the moment I was aware and heard my dad tell me that boys were better than girls and my mom tell me that girls are smarter than boys, I was incredibly interested in understanding gender roles. I grew up in a Greek household where gender roles were clearly defined. Men worked and made money. The more money they made, the more of a man they were. Men were the king of the castle and made the decisions. The king deserved to have well-behaved children and a clean, orderly house. He should be served beef and potatoes nightly.

A woman’s role was to keep her man happy and content. Shower him with adoration and praise. Await his entry at the door as he returned from work slaying dragons, with a gentle kiss upon his cheek. She was to make his babies, keep his home, and cook his meals, while she enjoyed all the fruit of his labor. A woman was to think she was fortunate for such a life and give constant appreciation.

When I was about 12, my mom began to buck the system by going into business with my dad and slaying as many dragons as he did. She no longer cooked. We ate out, and she hired a housekeeper.

After I was married and started to have kids, John and I went to church, where we heard a lot about gender roles. Again, men protected and provided, and women were submissive and obedient. John and I never fit in. At church parties, I found myself talking business with the men, and John was hanging out with the women. I read all the books like How To Be the Wife of a Happy Husband and Marry Him and Be Submissive.

But I wasn't submissive. If I saw injustice or corruption, I spoke up. If I was lied to, I confronted the liar. If someone tried to violate my will, I created a boundary. I didn't believe God wanted women submissive. After years of trying to fit in, we stopped going to church and just lived authentically as two artists trying our best, walking in our destinies as the people God created. But why are men from the wild and women from the garden? I still had to know.

Shedding the Script

As I continued to watch my children grow and stepped deeper into my destiny, my drive for attaining what God called me to live and accomplish came more to the forefront of my daily intentions. I became determined, fierce, steadfast, and hyper-focused on achieving each small step to get me closer to my goals, which would mark my way towards living out my purpose. I began riding horses, feeling wild and free. I wasn't holding myself back anymore or shrinking small for others around to me feel big enough.

As the years passed, I shed one assigned expectation of me as a woman after another. With each step, I gained more and more of myself back. I love to work, and I don't want to apologize for it. I’m tired of being called an overachiever, or told that I’m overcompensating for something I lack. I’m tired of others saying I have “masculine energy.”

What’s the big deal if I come from the wild, untamed land to subdue, instead of the garden enclosed by blooming flowers and fragrant herbs—bordered, maintained, plucked, and pruned?

I might be Wild at Heart and not Captivating.

Recently, my son-in-law began reading John Eldridge’s book, Wild at Heart, and my daughter read Captivating by Stasi Eldridge. They are his-and-her books that speak to what is at the heart of a woman and what is at the heart of a man. I read Captivating years ago, and I remember loving it but felt like I needed to read it again.

Painting Paradise

But I didn’t expect that as I pored through the pages, my feminine heart would come alive. I discovered that at the heart of every woman is the desire for profound, epic romance; to be an integral and necessary part of a grand adventure; and to unveil beauty in the process.

THIS IS ME!

It's not the romance of John bringing me flowers or writing me poems that grip my heart. It is the epic divine romance of being a part of something bigger than myself—the notion that I am a part of a worldwide movement that will forever change the shape of the earth. This is God’s dream: to bring back a fallen earth to the paradise of the garden, to live for a future filled with wholeness and beauty beyond comprehension.

I am chasing the prophetic vision of God. I am unveiling Beauty in the process.

“Yes!” I cry. “Awaken North wind and blow across my garden.”

I finally understood why a woman makes her home in the garden, where soft flowers bloom, whatever is green grows, and life begins from seed. Eve is set apart, born from the garden, and prepared for an age to unveil beauty and tame the wild. She is gifted with the unique ability to nurture growth and cultivate every precious blossom until it matures into a fragrant explosion of color and seed and life. Her garden is subduing the wild earth. She paints the landscape with her expressive marks filled with passion and desire. She is unstoppable. She will not rest until every corner of the earth has felt her brushstrokes.

Adam feels most at home in the wilderness because it tests his mettle and affirms the question of his soul: “Can I do it? Am I capable?” The wild, free places where adventure stirs, show a man he is strong, fierce, and enduring. His courage can rise as he searches for the beauty he will rescue. He was made to have dominion over the wild places, to call it what it is, as Eve spreads her garden in its place. He conquers the untamed land, gives it a name, and lives to see beauty restored.

Could this be the answer? Is it so simple and obvious? Did I already know the end of the riddle?

I see a great unstoppable revolution of women lifting their brushes, making their mark, and cultivating beauty. They fill the internet with undeniable splendor, homes with their life-giving canvases. No one can predict, or even conceive of, what ramifications will follow this complete takeover of the earth. But I am certain it is God’s dream, the dream that began in Eden in the very beginning of time.

Where do you feel most at home—in the wild, or in the garden?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!