Is the story of Adam and Eve so far from us that it lost its ability to be enough to show us that even if we had it all back at one that we’d also misstep, slip and lean into temptation? Can we fathom that if we started from scratch in a garden abundantly providing for us that our human nature…as in yours that’s in you and mine that’s in me…would take over? Can we confess that we’d screw it up too? Are we willing to see that the essence of the human experience isn’t about always getting it right, but more about how we handle the choices we’ve made when we harm ourselves or another with impulsive behaviors or careless words?
I think I’ve heard far too many times the criticism of Adam and Eve, but what about the last hour, or even the last fifteen minutes of our own lives? Have our words been totally harmless? Have or actions unequivocally caused no damage or harm to another or to the earth?
When we mess up the garden, let us pause. May we pivot and go back to the one who loves us most. Bow our heads and hearts in humility and ask for the way forward. Maybe Eve and Adam didn’t have cell phones and car rider lines, but their nature was like ours all the same, right? They let their urgency to escape the hard truth take over, and they missed the pause. The stillness. The opportunity to humbly bow and feel the remorse of their mistakes. The chance to feel the love of a God so great. We cut ourselves off from the expansive acceptance and love of God when we skim around the steps of coming back for help in humility.
May we remember to pause, pivot and permit ourselves to experience the full depth of such a Love, which is always big enough to hold whatever armloads of mess our wrongs have burdened us and others with so heavily. May we trust in the abundance of God to hold us, carry us and restore us. Over and over again.
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