I meet a lot of girls around the globe. Many live with obstacles and oppression to overcome in their cultures, even in their families. Is God’s beautiful plan for girls for today, and is it for them? They ask, “How does a girl live in this broken world? And what purpose does God have for my life?“
I find answers in learning from women in the Bible, starting with the Mother of Us All. Unlike messages girls hear that our value depends on physical beauty or achievements, the first story of the first woman tells another story. Her story—our story—starts in Genesis 1.
BEAUTY – The Start of God’s Beautiful Plan for Girls
When the Bible says God “made a woman,” it means He carefully designed her, building her into His likeness to reflect His nature. Though she differed hormonally, socially, emotionally, and psychologically from the man He made, her value was no different than the man’s. She was not less. Like the man, she too was “very good.”
The Maker crafted the woman last. Her making came when God said Adam didn’t have a “suitable helper” in all He made to that point. After so many beautiful things, so many “good” things, He added another truly beautiful and precious creature to complete the work. This was part of God’s beautiful plan for girls.
Unlike the first human Adam, the Creator didn’t use earth’s dust to make the woman. While the man was in deep sleep, “The Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man.”
Though the animals had names, the beautiful, precious creature called “female” didn’t have a unique name. She reflected God’s image in the same way Adam did. Designed with equal value, she was innocent and beautiful. With her husband Adam, they had no need to cover themselves in the perfect, shameless garden they called home. It was all they knew, and it was all good from their good Creator.
BELIEF
Our ancestor Eve was so beautiful in her clean innocence, but she wanted more than what God gave her. A lot of women feel that way.
Satan got the woman alone, attacking her intelligence and her heart with questions about what she believed. When the jealous enemy Satan asked her to reject what she believed about God, she did.
Satan used a garden tree that Eve had surely seen and walked past. “God knows that when you eat from it,” the Enemy said, “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” He tricked her with a promise of “knowing more.”
- She rejected the belief that God acted for her good.
- She believed God wasn’t giving her all she needed.
- She believed that trusting herself instead of her Maker made sense.
Woman believed the evil one who came to her when she was alone, whispering doubts and lies to her in secret. Then she invited her only human companion, Adam, to stop believing God and start believing Satan with her. And he did. Satan was right.
“The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.” They saw something they hadn’t seen before—the darkness that comes with believing God isn’t good. Right away, their innocence was disrupted. The beauty of Garden life began to fade.
BLAME
Who’s to blame when disbelief spoils what should be beautiful? Whose fault is it if we don’t feel like we’re receiving God’s beautiful plan for girls?
Believing the Serpent’s lie exposed the woman. She felt the immediate loss of her honor. Now she not only resembled God; she resembled the fallen heart and mind of the evil one. Her “open eyes” saw her shame, and covering up began. Finger pointing began.
- The man said the woman made him do it.
- The woman said the serpent made her do it.
God saw them and called them out of hiding.
BROKENNESS
Instead of walking openly with each other and with their Maker, sin spoiled affection. They experienced something new in their relationships—separation. Feelings of fear, awkwardness, and embarrassment washed over them. Instead of a future of closeness and companionship, they discovered isolation.
Disbelief spoiled the perfect garden’s beauty and their innocent condition, driving them apart. All humanity was broken in a single act—every girl since the garden has lived with the brokenness the woman felt in the garden.
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12)
BURDEN
Since the Creator is holy, no one unclean could be near Him in the garden. He “banished” Adam and the woman from their paradise. Since He made them, He knew them. So He gently covered them (Genesis 3:21) when they tried to hide their nakedness with leaves.
To know what it is to experience evil with good is to carry the curse of sin (Romans 5:19). For a girl growing into a woman, we want the paradise we were created for. Trouble comes in trying to get back the peace we want with our husband, children, and others in our community.
We want to cover what we believe in secret. We feel the urge to control the things and the people around us, a desire both men and women feel.
Not only were the eyes of humanity “opened,” but the disbelief in God’s goodness brought burdens. Life would be painful for men and women in different ways. Work would be hard. Life would be a struggle. Growing a family would hurt. Getting along would cause suffering. Life out of the garden paradise would be life with burdens.
This news had to crush the heart of the first two people, our ancient family members, as they tried to understand what it all meant—ideas and words they hadn’t needed to know before. Could they still believe God is good? Was the Maker abandoning them? Does a girl have to be perfect to be loved?
Even when His creation believes lies about Him, God keeps loving those He made to walk with Him. “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.” (Lamentations 3:22)
BLESSING – Saving God’s Beautiful Plan for Girls
Right after the Creator, God Himself, explained what the consequences of disbelief would look like, He acted with mercy to comfort them. Before we read that God covered them with the skins, we read about another act of comfort.
The woman had not only participated with the man in causing the pain, hidden in shame, and learned she would personally suffer, but she was uniquely called to minister to the coming needs.
In Genesis 3:20, the woman received her personal name. “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.” She would be a nurturing presence to answer the pain of a broken world.
God could’ve sent her out of the garden alone, without her husband or future children. Instead, He showed Eve grace. God’s beautiful plan for girls was not destroyed.
She was still Adam’s companion and wife, still a mother who would bear future generations. God said her “seed” gave all humanity hope, even as her disbelief led to its suffering. Yes, there would be pain, but there was the promise that her own child would someday overcome her enemy.
One reason we yearn for companionship is to overcome the paradise-spoiling isolation of sin. The God of Peace would one day crush the one who stirred up the disbelief (Romans 16:20). Before Adam and Eve even stepped out into an unknown, unsafe, unloving world beyond the gates of the garden, God put a plan in motion to restore His dear ones to be all He made them to be. By giving His own Son’s life to pay for the disobedience of the first people, He made a way to restore their honor, so they could again bring Him honor.
God’s Beautiful Plan for ME
As the “Mother all the Living,” Eve went out into the broken world as a nurturing, peaceful presence. Once perfectly beautiful in creation, she was tempted to stop believing and tried to shift the blame. She discovered brokenness in her relationships and started to understand the life of burden that would follow. But the merciful Maker reassured her He would make a way to restore the beauty of His plan in her life. He would use her to bring beauty into other lives—all the way to girls today. God’s beautiful plan for girls extends to girls and women in today’s broken world. We too have a beautiful plan for our lives.
God made girls to be beautiful, fully formed as we trust Him, fully healed from our brokenness, bringing Him honor as a nurturing, peaceful presence in a broken world.
Leave a Reply