Adam and Eve, fruitful characters

So far everything is good and fine. You’re enjoying each other and the revenues of paradise. You are completely free. Free to enjoy everything God has given you. There is just one thing. One thing you would hardly notice in the vast abundance of grace of beauty within paradise. Of all the bushes and plants and trees you can eat from or handle, two trees are off limits: Tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.

How would you handle that? Chances are you wouldn’t be bothered at all. Who cares about two different trees - when there is so much other fruit and veggies to enjoy? Well, the bad guy does. And he slithers in the story in the form of a snake. The story which is, of course, the story of Adam and Eve. And it is them that are placed in this paradise and are faced with history’s first challenge of obedience, when the snake starts talking to Eve. 

The snake - who we have come to know as God’s adversary - starts hissing an almost impressive amount of lies into the ear of the impressionable Eve. And that’s when it all goes wrong. ‘The things the snake says seem to make so much sense! Why shouldn’t we eat from these trees as well? Every other tree is available to us, why not these. Besides, the fruits do look lovely and lush!’

Most of us know what happens next. The snake lures Eve into disobedience, she picks a piece of fruit (not an apple!*) from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Eve, in turn, lulls Adam into taking a bite as well. Without using his teeth, but just his treacherous tongue, the snake evokes a devastating bite… The bite in the fruit that wasn’t supposed to be eaten–the bite that hurls creation into suffering.

Immediately they know. 

Immediately they know about good…

…and evil.

And nothing was the same anymore.

The story of Adam and Eve is a sad story in many ways. It is a story about promising starts that end in misery. It is a story of beauty and bliss, but also of betrayal and banishment. And yet, it doesn’t end in tears. Adam and Eve are expelled from paradise and left to their own devices in a world that doesn’t care. But God does still care. He hasn’t left them. He just chose a different path with them. A longer one, filled with challenges and hardship, but with the same goal: to ultimately restore and redeem humanity to divine fruitfulness.

We invite you to experience the story of Adam and Eve. A story we are all a part of, from the beginning of time until… …not the end, but a new beginning. A story of renewal beyond devastation that somehow points to the story of Jesus Christ.

* We honestly don’t know whether or not Eve ate an apple. The bible, nor history provides any details on that part, except for the interpretations of artists from the past. As far as we know, the only apple in history that provided humanity any knowledge is the one that fell on Newton’s head. And even that story is under scrutiny. And then there is perhaps a certain computer brand…