And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”—Genesis 2:22-23 ESV
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.—Genesis 3:20 ESV
On that fateful day, I remember walking near the tree that we weren’t meant to touch. I was slightly curious, well …I had been for a while now. Suddenly, the snake was at my side. I can’t even remember what he said to me. Before I knew it, as if hypnotised, I grabbed a fruit from the tree and ate it.
I then took it to Adam; I didn’t need to convince him that much for him to eat it too. I guess he had been thinking about it too but didn’t have the guts to do it. Immediately, we both ate it, everything felt strange, and then we noticed something—we were naked! We felt cold and ashamed of ourselves, feelings we had never felt before, and that was just the beginning.
That evening when God made his usual visit, we couldn’t face him, so we hid. He already knew what we did, but when he asked us what happened, we made excuses. Adam blamed me, I blamed the snake and that made God furious with us. Because of me, the ground that Adam looked after was cursed, so was I and even the snake. To my horror, God killed one of the animals and made us something to wear before he chucked us out of the garden.
That night we couldn’t sleep. Something was definitely wrong. Most of the animals made harrowing noises all night. Thinking about it now, they must have been wailing over everything that we had lost. That day, we unleashed something very, very dark.
By the next day, nothing was the same anymore. The animals stopped playing and talking with us. The first animal we came across was a lion, which tried to attack us, we were saved by a horse. The plants started to grow differently, too; we started having thorns and poisonous fruits. We couldn’t find food to eat easily anymore. Peace was nowhere to be found, and we started looking over our shoulders all the time.
We tried going back to the garden to make things right, but that was impossible. God placed angels at the entrances to the garden and a flashing sword around the tree of life. Sadly, God wasn’t talking to us anymore either.
Not long after, I got pregnant, and childbirth was no joke. That was when I understood the implication of what I had done. I had two sons, and it was a pleasure seeing them grow up. Then one day, I couldn’t believe it when Cain killed his brother Abel. I thought only animals killed each other; I didn’t expect it from humans, too.
The world is so chaotic these days; humans kill each other over every little thing. Besides, we’ve got these things ravaging the man’s body – some call them sicknesses and diseases.
How I wish I had never touched that fruit now. If only I had steered clear of the forbidden tree and never listened to that snake, none of this would have happened. If I had just trusted His Word, everyone and everything would have remained peaceful and perfect.
I can say one thing: God still loves humans, and He has a big plan to make it all peaceful again. I must say, I don’t understand it. Most of all, I hear He is still talking with some people. If that is you, it is a privilege. Learn from my mistake, obey His words, and mind who you listen to.
Stay blessed,
LaraLex
Hills and Valleys 