It begins in a garden. Call it Eden or whatever you wish. A Divine voice bellows from within. Life emerges and stakes its claim on the garden. Man and woman walk the garden. The text teaches that they were pure of thought and deed. The Divine voice instructs them; “From the trees of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.” Eternity was theirs as long as they followed the one rule. Ah, but temptation in the midst of the world. Every day they would gather what they needed circling the forbidden tree and wondering what its fruit would taste like.
In Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s wonderful book called “The Little Prince”, the prince who is a space traveler, encounters a planet where the only resident was a fox. The fox, who had encountered other beings before was afraid of the prince. He was fearful of being hunted as he had been before so he hid on the opposite side of this little planet. The prince saw the fox briefly. He saw his teeth and was afraid that the fox was ferocious and would attack him. He also hid on the other side of the planet.
They struck up a conversation wanting to know how to overcome their fears. The fox proffered a solution. Let us move a little closer each day until we can sit in each others presence without fear of the other. And so they did. Each day they become a little closer as their lives merged into one.
And so it was with Adam and Eve, each day moving their circle a little closer towards that tree in the midst of the garden. At first they could smell the sweetness of its fragrance. It filled the garden with an enticing aroma. And then they could feel its fruit, plump and rounded, the juice of its fruit dripping onto the ground below. And then the grasp and the gasp as Eve, fiercely brave, pulled the fruit from the branches. And the taste, as the sweet juice flowed over her hands and down her face as she bit into that forbidden fruit. And as she held her hands to Adam and he bit deeply into that sweetness, a shudder ran through them as awareness and knowledge flowed into their souls.
As we know, the next moment tells the tale as Eve and Adam discover themselves in the midst of the garden. Suddenly they are aware of each other in a way that had been hidden from them before. Seeing each other in this new light, passion was born and presence was acknowledged and they covered themselves to manage the new found feeling they had for each other.
It was at that moment of awareness that a voice called from the midst of the garden. The Holy Blessed One, who had brought them together and fashioned their world with its many colors and tastes and smells, called from the tree. Something had changed in the garden. There was a new sense permeating the creation that had been hidden before. Free will was born. Adam and Eve emerged from their hiding place, covered, with eyes averted from the voice and an awareness of their choice written all over their faces. The voice was displeased with their actions. They had broken the code. Their choice merged awareness and eternity into one. God should only have that power in the garden. So from that fountain of being in the midst of the garden came the punishment. No longer would Adam and Eve live for eternity. The fruit of the tree of life would no longer be theirs for the picking. Knowledge they had but no longer would they have it forever. And so they walked from that place in Eden towards their future, where the encounter with the Divine voice would need to be found.
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