Reflecting on the story told in Genesis, chapters 3 and 4, prompts me to pay attention to my inner responses while reading and rereading it. One such response is my preference for the story to be mainly concerned with people who lived long ago and far away. But my heart tells me the story concerns me, too, probably in ways that are more immediate than I feel ready to admit. Shall I follow my preference or my heart, as I continue to reflect on the story?
Here is another inner response: I am struck by the enormity of the choice implied by the two trees God places at the center of humans' environment. One is the Tree of Life from which woman and man may may freely partake, just as we may feed on every other tree "pleasing to the eye and good for food."(Genesis 2:9) Another is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, from which woman and man are forbidden to partake under penalty of death. Which shall we choose? Life forever (Genesis 3:22) or die (Genesis 2:17)? My inner response is a trembling soul-quake!
Finally, I am moved to the response of compassion. As the story unfolds, woman and man do not immediately experience the death penalty promised by Creator God. Instead they live to see their second-born die, murdered by the hand of their firstborn. What could be worse for a parent? I let go of my temptation to rush into judgment: "They got just what they deserved!" Through God-given tenderness my soul weeps.
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