Eve's Eyes
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| (God, Adam, and Eve after the fall from the Garden, Source: Wikipedia) |
I was born into bright light and lots of noise. There was a
figure standing near me, one I had never seen before. I had never seen anyone
before. Let alone anything. I felt this weird sense of overwhelming awe at my
surroundings and looked down to see that I had hands. I knew not where this
knowledge came from, nor could I comprehend any thought that was going through
my head. The figure was remaining by my side touched my shoulder and I
flinched, for never had I experienced touch.
I looked into the figure's face and felt a feeling of
immense affection, love, and gratitude. This was my Adam. I immediately knew
his name. He was a tall, dark haired, dark skinned, and dark eyed man. He
exhumed empowerment, strength, and a humbleness that could only be granted from
God. God. My brain started swirling again. God created me. I knew in that
moment that I was of Adam's rib. I was created to support Adam in all his days.
He had named every creature on this land with God's guidance. God then spoke to
us:
"I have formed both of you from the elements I created.
I have great plans for you and all the generations that spring forth from you.
You are the parents of the Earth; Father Adam and Mother Eve. Partake from all
fruit in this garden, from every tree, but do not eat from the Tree of
Knowledge. That is my one request."
We praised the Lord and took heed to His one rule. I ate all
the fruit I could possibly stuff in my stomach and then more! We lived like
this for days. It was wonderful in the beginning, but I grew rather bored of
God's sole affection for my husband. I felt like a nothing. God told me He
loved me all the time and I never doubted it, but I did not feel worthy of
either of their attention. I let the emotions build up for a long while because
I did not know what I was to do with them.
One day I just couldn't take it anymore. While Adam was
praying by the tree line one morning, I decided I was going to go sit by myself
underneath the Tree of Knowledge where Adam wouldn't think to look for me. As I
sat and fumed in my anger, I heard a rustling in the shrubs to my left. As I
looked into the shrubbery, one of God's creatures, the snake emerged on his two
feet. He was a beautiful creature to behold and definitely a face to trust.
Which I found out later, was the snake's hope from the beginning. He struck up
a conversation with me about why I was alone and comforted me in my
frustration. After a while the snake made me a proposition:
"Say, Eve, with all your anger you must feel the need
to seek vengeance, no? You must let Adam and God know that you are worthy of
their time and that you have a mind of your own, do not let them walk over you
any longer. Why don't you pick a fruit of off this here Tree of Knowledge and
take a vengeful bite?"
I looked at the trustworthy face of the snake and felt the
urge to rebel. A fire of anger grew up inside my chest and before I knew what I
was doing, the fruit was in my hand and headed towards my mouth. I took a bite.
It was the most delicious fruit I had ever tasted. I looked to my left to find
that the snake had disappeared and I ran back to Adam to show him my discovery.
I convinced my husband to taste the wonderful fruit that I
had picked, forgetting that it was against God's rule because of the
deliciousness. Adam fell in love with the fruit too and all of a sudden we
realized that we were NAKED. Oh how embarrassed I was to be standing in the
open like this. I couldn't handle it and neither could Adam, so we hid until
the booming voice of God's voice entered the garden:
"My children, where do you hide? Why have you disobeyed
me and eaten of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge? Emerge now." Adam
and I reluctantly came out of our hiding spaces and God spoke again, "You
hide because you disobeyed, you both have sinned. This requires punishment. You
are banned from the garden for 5,000 years, fated to walk the land outside and
work to live. All of your generations will work as well, and you Eve, child bearing
will be difficult. The snake fooled you, and in his treachery I have sentenced
him and his generations to slither on his belly for eternity."
.jpg) |
| (Adam and Eve after the eating of the forbidden fruit, Source: Wikipedia) |
At these words, we fell to the ground in grief and a deep
sleep came over us. When we woke up, we were in a strange place and the
darkness was overwhelming. Adam grieved inconsolably for days; pulling himself
to death multiple times, only to have God revitalize him.
I messed up. I knew that. My husband's agony was my doing. I
was so angry with the snake for fooling me, but I was angry with myself for
falling for it also. I was determined to get us through this. I comforted Adam
as best I could and took care of him in all ways that I could think.
We eventually grew used to the land and learned to work with
it. Adam continued to love me even though I made the mistake that ruined our
paradise. We were happy. Happy as we could be in this forsaken land. God had
mercy on us a lot and saved us from many early fates. He wasn't kidding when he
said child bearing was going to be painful, sheesh! I had a time with Cain and
Able. God is truly the provider though; He loves us and always will.
Author's Note: This story was based off of
Adam and Eve from the Un-Textbook. I wanted to shed some light on the creation story from the eyes of Eve. We don't ever get to hear a woman's side of the story, let alone a woman from the Bible, so I thought this would give a nice change of pace! Eve gets blamed a lot for her mistake of eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, but that snake had a heavy hand in convincing her! It wasn't just her fault.
Bibliography: King James Bible (1611) Genesis.
