Short Stories

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The dream was the same every time. He is standing there with his wife, listening to the serpent trying to lure her away.

She is so beautiful, just as Father made her, from his own flesh as he lay sleeping. The serpent keeps talking to her, but it's all a lie.
Father never said she must not eat any fruit of the Garden, but only the tree of Knowledge is off-limits. In the dream, he speaks out, "Get away from that creature my love; he is trying to trick you. Father knows what is best for us. Come; let us get away from this place."

He takes her by the shoulder, and gently leads her away from the Tree, the serpent, and the temptation to disobey Father. In the dream, Adam acts to defend his wife from being deceived.

When he wakes, he is cold, wearing animal skins to cover his nakedness. ("Who told you that you were naked?") "I'm sorry, Father, so sorry. I want to take that moment back." His wife is lying next to him, and beside her are his sons. She named both of them; Cain and Abel. Cain is four years old now, Abel is three.

Already Adam can see that these two boys are very different. Cain is withdrawn, sullen. He is selfish of the attention Eve gives Abel. Eve can't help but play favorites. Abel is so eager to please, so curious about the world, and attentive to instruction. Cain is...well, Cain is more like Adam since the expulsion from Eden; unsure of himself and afraid to fail, therefore afraid to act. Abel seems confident that God is hearing him,
that God loves him.

Both of the boys sat and listened eagerly to Adam's stories about Eden, how beautiful it was, waking the first time and seeing Father there looking at him with such love, waking again to see Eve there beside him. A creature like himself, finally, someone to share with, to walk with.

The Father brought him to a field earlier that day and presented him with all the lower creatures. He had given Adam the task of naming the creatures since Adam was to be lord over this world as Father was Lord over the Heavens. Tiny hands rose up. "I know what happened next, father. You gave the animals names. How did you decide what to name them?"

Adam always smiled at this line of questioning. As he remembered, he just had the names in his head. He had already been describing the creatures in his talks with Father, and it was those descriptions that stuck as names for the creatures. Some were named for the sounds they made, some for features on their bodies.

After naming the animals, Adam had still not found a creature like himself, and Father told him that he was special. "None of these creatures can share your life with you. They are to be as servants to you, but not helpers. I showed you these creatures and let you name them so that you would know how special you are in this whole world. You are my son, Adam. I will now provide you with a mate in your likeness. She will be a reflection of My beauty and the beauty you see around you. She will walk with you always, as a reminder of how much I love you. Protect her; keep her by your side. I have shown you many things, and have told you about the forbidden trees in the Garden. I trust you to teach her the things I have told you."

Adam looked at the three people lying next to him and thought grimly, “Father gave me a test, trusted me with the whole garden and only one command. I failed."

"How could I have known that the serpent would be so crafty?" Beside her husband, Eve was having her own nightmare. "How could I have been so gullible?

The serpent never spoke to me before, and Adam had instructed me about the trees in the Garden."

In her dream, Eve went back to the day that changed her life, got her family cast from the Garden, and stained her relationship with her husband. The day was the same as previous days, glorious. The beauty of the Garden she had been created in never ceased to amaze her, fill her with awe. Adam was so kind, so engaged in their relationship. He told her of his walks with Father, how God had shown him all the animals and after naming them, he had gone to sleep and awakened with Eve next to him. Adam had told her what God had told him, every word. The whole Garden, the entire world was theirs to use and take care of.

They were to bring forth children and fill the earth with offspring. In the center of the Garden, Adam showed her two trees, perhaps the most
beautiful plants in the entire Garden. One, he explained, was the tree of life, the other was of knowledge. Adam admitted he didn't know what 'good' and 'evil' were, but Father had given a strict warning, “You may freely eat any fruit in the garden, except fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die."

The serpent caught Eve's eye one day, walking toward the center of the Garden. Something was prodding her to follow, another something, just as powerful, was sending alarms, "Stop! There is danger here, Eve. Go back to Adam." Her curiosity got the best of her, and Adam was never far away in any case. She had lost track of the serpent until she saw him in the knowledge-tree. (The forbidden tree, Eve! Don't eat of its fruit!) The alarm went off again in her mind, and she was about to leave when she heard a voice.
It wasn't Adam, who was just outside the Garden center. It certainly was not the Father, whose voice reminded Eve of the rivers flowing from the garden. This voice was powerful but somehow...not right. The serpent spoke, "Did God really say you must not eat any fruit in the garden?" Eve thought a moment. The serpent was confused. She replied that
only the knowledge-tree was forbidden. "God said we must not eat of it or even touch it (at least she thought that God said don't touch it.) or we will surely die."

The serpent seemed angered by this, and said that she would not die, almost spitting out the words. The longer the serpent spoke, the quieter the alarms in her head were. Adam had approached about the time the serpent finished explaining how God was jealous, and if she ate of the
knowledge-tree she would know what God knew. The rest, as they say, was history. Eve ate of the fruit, Adam ate of the fruit, and banishment soon followed. "If only I could go back, or if Adam had stepped in, we wouldn't be raising these boys out here in the wilderness."

A part of Eve now and always would resent her husband's weakness at that crucial moment, a resentment she would pass on to her daughters.

As the years passed, Cain and Able grew and so did the differences between them. Adam tried to teach the boys how to make a fire for the camp and for the altar. Abel kept trying, asking questions, "Am I doing it right, father?" He succeeded after a few false starts. Cain took days to master fire-starting. The boy was trying too hard, and Adam's advice seemed only to frustrate him more. He would throw down the tools and exclaim, "I'll never get this right! Why do we have to learn this anyway?" He kept blaming his failure on Abel, saying that the younger brother was given better tools, or he was cheating somehow.

The boys would start bickering, and then shoving each other. Adam intervened only when punches were thrown, then sometimes his anger would lash out and he would give the boys the back of his hand.

Apologies followed along with instructions that they must all pray and learn how to make proper sacrifices to God. "We all now have to atone for our sin against God, as will your sons and their sons after them. If we do what is right, God will bless us. Don't be foolish like your mother and I were.

We acted too late to obey God and have, I'm afraid, damned the rest of mankind. One of you will be the father from which our Redeemer comes." For Adam, God seemed less and less like Father and more and more a distant authority figure. Some part of Adam knew that from now on, he would hide from God, in one way or another.

The boys grew into manhood, and Abel was drawn to keeping sheep and Cain decided to keep a plot of land. Cain felt drawn to the soil and was fascinated by what it could produce. Abel loved the land, but he loved animals more, and became a sheepherder. Adam had instructed his sons in the practice of sacrifice and alter-building, something that seemed to have been placed in his mind, like the memory of a dream.

Although both men knew the importance of offering a flesh sacrifice, a bull, or a lamb, Cain had lately started arguing with his brother, and when they argued, Cain would not go to his brother for a lamb to offer to God. The last two sacrifices he had offered were of grain. Adam warned his older boy that a grain offering was not enough. "At least offer a bird or living thing, Cain. Sin can only be atoned by blood. If you plan on offering grain, be sure to give God your best, the first of your crop. Pray and ask God to show you what is best."

The first grain offering was accompanied by two doves and a prayer, "Lord, it’s Cain. I wish I could hear You like Abel hears you. Speak to me, please. Here is the best of my grain and two doves - take these offerings as a payment for my rebellion. Dad says we must be patient, that a Redeemer will come soon." As the months went by, Cain spoke less and less to God and started hearing from and communicating with different voices. These voices encouraged him to do as he pleased.

"You don't need Abel or your parents. It's God's fault that you're out here in the wilderness instead of Eden, where you belong." Cain struggled within himself; his parents had told him his whole life that it was rebellion against God, not God himself that had forced them out of Eden. This other voice appealed to him more somehow because they made him feel powerful, worthwhile and entitled without going to God or getting along with Abel.

Cain started holding back his harvest, keeping the choice grain for himself. When his sacrifices started to lay idle on the altar, he became even angrier. "God loves Abel more than you, Cain. Look at the way his sacrifice is gobbled up while yours sits there. I can feel your anger toward your brother, Cain. It’s right that you hate him, that sniveling cheat. Who is he to be favored by God? Who is God to deny you happiness? You can do better on your own.” Cain spent the rest of the day in a deep depression, angry at Abel for reasons he still had trouble wrapping his head around.

A voice again spoke to him, but this time, it was The Lord, “Why are you so angry? Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you respond in the right way. But if you refuse to respond correctly, then watch out!” Cain cringed a bit at the sharp tone The Lord was taking. “Sin is waiting to attack and destroy you, and you must subdue it.”'

A terrible reality began to sink into Cain's mind and heart. The only way to be accepted by anyone: God, mom or dad was to be rid of Abel. How? Abel wouldn't go away just to give Cain the attention he sought. Abel had to be dealt with harshly and soon. The dark voices came again; Abel has been stealing what is rightfully yours. You are the oldest son; you deserve to have your sacrifices taken into heaven. Take Abel out into one of your fields, to talk. There you will find what you need to be rid of him.”

Cain awoke with a start from a terrible dream. He should have been lying down, but he awoke standing upright with a stone in his hand. The stone and the hand that held it were covered with blood, hair, and skull matter. At Cain's feet lay the body of his brother.

Cain started to remember the short time that had just passed. Abel had been tending his sheep, and Cain approached him. "Brother, I’d like to speak to you. I would like to make peace, to apologize for the way I have behaved lately. I've been jealous of you. Come with me to the field so we can reconcile these foolish arguments. The dark voices were speaking to Cain again. "Don't begin to apologize to him, Cain. This is your chance to make him leave forever!" The two brothers reached the field where Cain had just planted some grain less than a month before.

Abel embraced his brother, saying “I’m so glad that you put away the anger between us, Cain. Remember that if your motives are pure, God will take your sacrifice.” At these words, Cain saw red, heard only the blood in his ears. He pushed Abel away, knocking the younger man to his knees. “That’s why I hate you, Abel, always reminding me how much better you are, how God favors you! That ends today!” As he spoke, he was only vaguely aware of picking up a large stone from the soft earth.

What Cain most focused on was the chorus of voices, Jealousy, Rage, Hate, and a new voice, that of Murder. All of them screamed in his ear “Kill him! Strike this ‘favored son’ down now!” Cain reached back, stone in hand, and as he brought it down to meet Abel’s skull, a faint voice grew loud, screaming “STOP! Don’t give in to sin!”, and then as Abel’s eyes grew wide, dimmed, then closed in death, the voice shrieked, “CAIN, NOOOOO!”

The nightmare was not over for Cain as he looked upon the body of his brother, it had just begun. No sooner had he dropped the gore-covered rock then the voices, similar to those who had cheered him on as he struck Abel, started accusations against him. “Look at what you’ve done! God will strike you down now, Cain. He will surely hate you now. You had better get to work burying your brother before God sees what you have done.”

The ground was soft, and before the sun had begun to set, Abel was part of the field Cain had recently turned over. Cain lingered a while, looking at the mound of soil over his brother, remembering what his father Adam had told them about returning to the earth from which they were taken. “I guess you’ll be the first, brother.”

The voice of God boomed in Cain’s ears, “Where is your brother Abel?” Cain pretended he wasn’t hearing God, and then answered, “How should I know? Am I my brother’s guard?”

Cain held his hands to his ears, trying in vain to shut out God, but The Almighty’s voice spoke further, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened up its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. If you till the earth, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain lay on the ground, grasping at the soil and cried out, “My punishment is too great to bear! You have driven me from the face of the ground today and I am hidden from your face. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth and anyone who finds me now will kill me!”

God spoke again, but it seemed to Cain that His voice was softened slightly, saddened. “Well, if anyone kills Cain, vengeance will be taken out on him sevenfold.” This proclamation seemed not directed at Cain directly but across the earth itself.

And so it was that from the first man taken from the earth, barely one generation was raised before war and murder were born. Cain was given a mark so that he would be recognized and avoided by men the rest of his days. Cain, the first son of Adam, so full of promise, became the first murderer, the first to declare war on another human being.

Eve was given another son to carry the promise of Messiah. His name was Seth. By Seth’s seed eventually came Noah, who was chosen to save the human race and the lives of all living creatures from The Flood. Sin entered the world through our first parents, through the first man, Adam. Mankind has been given a chance at redemption through the shed blood of the ‘second Adam’, Jesus the Messiah.

“God so loved the world that He gave His One-And-Only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but possess everlasting Life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” – Jesus of Nazareth (John 3:16, 17)

“I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” – Jesus of Nazareth (John 14:6)

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