Wednesday, March 1, 2017

A Word from Adam (Reflections on Lent 1, Year A)



The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’ Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7)

Hi, God.

It’s been a while since I’ve talked with you. You have to forgive me—of course, you’re good at that—but I’ve been kind of busy. I really like this snow that you’ve made. It’s cold, but it’s kind of pretty and we never had it in Eden. Of course, we never had to shovel it, either, but hey! You do what you’ve got to do, right?

You like my new outfit? Eve made it. Who’d have thought—you take the wool off of a sheep and then you wash it and spin it around and it becomes long and stringy and you just sort of weave it in and out and you can make all kinds of stuff with it. Not that there was anything wrong with the garments of skin you made for us—heck of a lot better than those dumb fig leaf aprons we made, right?

Well, I guess I’ve been okay. The work is kind of hard but you said by the sweat of my brow I eat bread, you know? It’s actually fun sometimes, too. I mean, I like herding the animals and tilling the ground. It makes me feel like I’ve done something important. And the boys help out a lot, too. Of course they bicker all the time, but I guess that’s how brothers are. I wouldn’t know. You never gave me a brother. Not that I’m complaining..!

I guess I just wanted to say hello and to tell you again that I’m sorry. I’m not sorry because I have to work. I think work has made me a better person, don’t you? I’m just sorry I hurt you because I miss you. You don’t ever come walking among us at the time of the evening breeze like you used to. And sometimes I just feel very far away from you.

And, not for nothing, I’m kind of mad at you sometimes, too. I mean, why did you put that friggin’ tree in the garden in the first place if you didn’t want us to eat it? And why did you make that talking snake who told us everything would be okay if we did eat..? So, okay! I know good from evil, but I wish I didn’t if it means I don’t get to know you.

Look: Nothing’s really been the same since I messed up. You don’t come around any longer, the environment and I don’t get along—there’s snow in the winter and weeds in the summer and snakes that don’t talk who I have to watch out for and rats and bugs that eat the crops and the boys fight all the time and the wife’s always on my butt! Of course I don’t really blame her for that. I guess I shouldn’t have blamed her for that whole fruit-eating thing. I probably need to apologize to her for that.

But, listen, I just want to thank you for giving me another chance and not striking me dead when I disobeyed you. That was very merciful of you. I guess now that if you hadn’t given me the choice to trust you or disobey you, I never would’ve known what it means to really trust you. Or love you. And I do love you, God. I want you to know that. Sometimes I think the worst thing I’ve ever done was the best day of my life.

Does that make any sense? Well, anyway, I have to get back to work. Good talk

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