It Was the Woman You Gave Me

After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they both hid from God in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3:11 & 12 God asked Adam, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” Adam gave the answer that married men have been repeating ever since, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

Someone once said, “Every man needs a wife, because many things go wrong that he can’t blame on the government.” For thousands of years husbands have been blaming their wives for stuff that goes wrong in their lives. Wives get the blame for everything from lost car keys to heartburn. If a man’s car isn’t running right, somehow it has to be his wife’s fault. It doesn’t seem to matter how far removed she is from her husband’s problem, somehow and someway she is going to catch blame for it.

I’m as guilty as the next guy playing the blame game. I was thinking about my ancestor Adams’ statement, “It was the woman you gave me” and came to realize he was not only blaming his wife Eve for his disobedience, but he was blaming God as well. “The woman YOU gave me” says it all.

The Bible says in Proverb 18:22 “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the LORD.” Proverb 31:10 says “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” Ephesians 5:28 tells us “In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”

Scriptures exhort husbands to love and honor their wife. She is God’s precious gift to him. If someone gave a beautiful fine China tea cup to a man and he thoughtlessly used that teacup as an ashtray or filled it with dirt and made it into a planter, he not only dishonored the gift but the giver as well. Husbands who don’t honor their wife as a precious gift, dishonor God.

Husbands, what if we stop playing the blame game with our wives and use our great (x 142) grandfather Adam’s words to honor the gift and the giver? When God asks us why we no longer act, live and smell like a barbarian, we should simply reply, “It was the woman you gave me.” If He asks why our bathroom smells like Lilacs and the toilet tank has sea shells on it, we can say, “It was the woman you gave me.” If He asks us why our home and our world is beautiful, we’ll have to respond, “It was the woman you gave me.” If he asks why our children are so wonderful, we need to admit, “It was the woman you gave me.” Finally, when He asks us what’s the most precious gift (with the exception of Jesus) he has ever given us, with a grateful heart let’s declare, “It was the woman you gave me.”

Let me say, “Thank you Lord for the woman you gave me.”