daily java

Daily Java:

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Once upon a time, long before there were people, long before there was even land or water or anything, there was God. His name was YHVH. And YHVH was lonely. He wanted people to be with, to laugh with, to love.

YHVH set about to make a place for his people, those he would love and who would love him.

He made light and darkness and covered the world with water. He created night and day, the sun and the moon and all of the stars. He covered the ground with plants and put fish in the seas and animals on the land.

But these were not enough. YHVH wanted something more, someone more, that he could love and care for.

He made a statue out of dirt and mud and then breathed life into it. The statue became a creature above all his other creatures and YHVH loved him.

But although YHVH had a friend, someone to love him, he saw that the man – as YHVH called him – was lonely himself. He had no one like himself to talk to, to hug, to have dinner with. He was friends with YHVH but he was alone otherwise.

So YHVH put him to sleep and took one of his ribs. He made another person like the man but yet different too. When the man woke up, he was surprised, not sure what to do. He had never seen anything as beautiful as the creature before him. YHVH called her a woman.

And the man, who was now called Adam loved the woman, who was now called Eve. YHVH was happy and made them a garden to live in, one in which they could walk and eat the fruit of and be happy. He even put a tree in the garden, the Tree of Life, that when they ate its fruit, they never got sick and they never died.

Adam loved Eve and before long there were children everywhere. Everybody was happy, there was laughter and singing, joy and fun. YHVH came everyday and walked with Adam and Eve through the garden that he had built for them to live in.

But there was one catch, one problem, one thing that Adam and Eve could not do. There was one tree in the middle of the garden that YHVH told them they could not eat of. It was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they ate the fruit of that tree, they would know the difference between right and wrong and would start to live in sin.

YHVH told them they must never eat of that tree. It was forbidden. If they did, they would die.

But the woman, Eve, would come sometimes and just look at it. She considered its fruit to be beautiful and wondered what it would taste like. She imagined that it would be sweet and juicy and would be so delicious.

Adam would tell her no, that they needed to stay away from it because YHVH loved them and told them to. They were not sure why, but he knew that it was that way because YHVH told them so.

One day, Eve sat for a long time and thought about the Tree. Adam came and sat down beside her and looked with her. He knew it bothered her and didn’t really know why.

As she was looking at the tree, a serpent came up beside her. Adam and Eve played with all of the animals in the Garden and, since they only ate fruit and vegetables, none of the animals were afraid of them.

The serpent was beautiful, with long elegant legs and a winning smile. He told Eve, “You can eat that fruit if you want to.”

Eve said, “Oh, no. YHVH told us to never eat it or we would die.” The serpent said, “No, you won’t. YHVH doesn’t want you to eat that fruit because he knows you would become great like him. He is afraid for you to eat it because he is jealous.”

Then the serpent reached out one of his long elegant legs and took a piece of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and gave it to Eve and said, “Go ahead, try it. You don’t know what you are missing if you don’t try it.”

Eve took a bite of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was so good. She took another. How could anything so good be bad?

Adam was watching. She gave it to him and said, “Here, Adam. Eat this. It is so good.”

Adam felt guilty because this was the only thing YHVH had ever told them not to do. But he didn’t want to disappoint Eve, so he ate it.

Instantly, he knew he had done wrong and he realized that YHVH would find out. Not only that, but he noticed that they were naked. They had on no clothing. And YHVH was due for his afternoon walk any time now. Eve was scared.

He and Eve ran behind a bush when they heard YHVH coming. “Adam! Eve! Where are you,“ called YHVH. “We are here behind this bush”, said Adam.  “We are hiding,” said Adam.

“Why are you hiding?” asked YHVH.

“Because we are naked,” said Adam. “And we are afraid.”

“Ah,” said YHVH sadly, “who told you that you were naked.”

“We found out when we ate that fruit you told us not to eat,” Adam replied.

Adam and Eve tried to explain why they had eaten it. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. The serpent just sat there and smiled. He had sure shown YHVH.

God knew they were lost now. Everything he had made was ruined. Sin – disobedience – had come into his perfect garden. If they stayed, knowing that they had sinned, and ate the fruit from the Tree of Life, they would be lost forever. YHVH couldn’t bear to hurt them like that, so he took them back to their homes.

He took two animals and killed them and made clothing for them from the skins. Adam and Eve had never seen anything die and it scared them badly. But YHVH wanted them to know that everything was different now. They had sinned and they could not live in a perfect world anymore. They and all their children had to go somewhere else.

He told Adam that from now on he would have to work hard to get plants to bear fruit for them to eat.

He told Eve that from now on, when she had children, it would be painful.

And he told the beautiful serpent that from now on, he would slither on his stomach, that his legs would be gone. He also told the serpent – who was really the devil – that one of these days, Eve’s child would come and crush his head for making them sin. The serpent would hurt his heel, but would die anyway.

But until that happened, Eve’s children – humanity – would always struggle with the devil. He would always try to make her children sin and God would always try to help them cope with it.

Then he made them leave the garden. As they left, they saw an angel of the Lord with a flaming sword standing at the entrance and they knew they could never go home.

At least not until one day when the child of Eve would crush the devil’s head and sin would be gone.