The evening the light went out

It begins with a question. The craftiest of the field's creatures asks the woman: "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Listen to what the question does. It takes a wide-open gift, every tree, freely, and turns it into a deprivation. The woman defends God's word, but it bends in her hands. She adds a rule he never gave ("neither shall ye touch it") and softens the one he did. Then the serpent stops asking and flatly contradicts: "Ye shall not surely die... ye shall be as gods."

This is the oldest trick in the world, on its first outing. They already are like God. The first page said so: made in his likeness. The serpent sells them, as a theft, what they already hold as a gift. She saw, she took, she ate, she gave. And her husband, the man charged to guard this place, stood with her and ate. The guard was standing at the breach.

Their eyes open, onto their own nakedness. Fig leaves. And then, in the cool of the day, the sound they know: the owner's evening walk. They hide. The questions come gently and in order. Where art thou? Who told thee? What is this thou hast done? The blame runs outward. The man blames the woman, and the Giver. The woman blames the serpent. Then the verdicts walk back down the chain: serpent, then woman, then man. The serpent is cursed, on its belly, eating dust. And inside that curse sits a promise not spoken to the couple at all: her seed shall bruise thy head. The woman: sorrow multiplied. The man: cursed is the ground for thy sake; thorns; sweat; "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

And then, before the door, two mercies. The man names his wife Eve, which means Living. That is faith, reading the promise inside the sentence. And God makes them coats of skins and dresses them himself. Then the sending: driven out, eastward into exile. Cherubim are posted at the door, with a sword of flame turning every way, and the way to the tree of life is kept. The gate is shut. But three things walk out with them into the dusk: a promise, a covering, and a name that means Living. The rest of the Bible is the story of the way back.