Author's Note:
Hi...something
I wrote, completely Biblically based, with some of its symbolism and types -
but I know I shouldn't leave it like this - there should be a second and third
part up some time.
Part I
"So He
[God] drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of
Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree
of life."
Genesis 3:24
The want to cower was strong - even though the voice that called for them sounded gentle when that divine Presence passed on a lilting tune as it usually did, as the flowers, resplendent in their mad blossom, sighed in melodious wonder and as the dewy trees bowed their deference.
Eden's sublime harmony teetered and tipped, shattering into millennia of fleeting, uncaught dreams.
Fearful uncertainty - a vast ocean of doubt - razor-sharp regret. - a rush of emotions that bewildered them so deeply, these overwhelming emotions that never existed prior, now sprang like a devouring lion shocking her so, such that the fruit rolled out of her hand, a small part of it lingering in her mouth.
The Voice called and they hid, suddenly nursing an instinct out of many emerging thousands swiftly born of the bitter aftertaste of knowledge's fruit, staggering past the luxuriant branches of the trees, finally settling uncomfortably within the large leaves. Anxiously, they looked down upon their covering, wretchedly and almost comically fumbling with the hurriedly plucked and woven fig leaves - an inescapable, unconscious lament for the loss of the crown of glory and honour.
The Garden, its crystalline river, its evening breezes and morning mists had been beatifically idyllic; they had run through it filled with its innocent spectrum of colours.
But now black brought on its fangs, a hulking snake and looming death; it advanced faster than the blinding white, which retreatednow there were perplexing shades of grey that befuddled their untrained minds.
Where are you, Adam?
All of creation lifted their regal heads in response, an animated adoration that leaned towards the passing breeze of the Almighty.
What is this that you have done?
For such, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conceptionBoth thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the fieldIn the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.
Dully they watched the animal wail, and the horrifying splatter of blood thereafter that proclaimed the slaying of the unblemished lamb by the Almighty's very own hand, which they were also not spared. They wore the animal now, a grievous, blood-drenched sight, covered by tunics that too, carried the stained red memory of the slaying.
Unseen by all except for the eyes of the Almighty, the seed of stain had been sown. He saw, the drop of black against the white, the drop of indigo against the clear, and its hateful, malicious growth through the dimension of time that he stretched between His hands.
And in that everlasting memory, He saw the beautiful archangel fall, cast from the celestial heights to inhabit the serpent's offered body, and heard the second thud of humanity's fall
They had to leave Eden, now merely utopia in name, to till the ground from where the man was taken.
Spindle of flaming light descended, multiplied, and coalesced from the corners of the Garden as the man and woman trudged out of their only home, that brief cocoon of sheltered incorruptibility and peace that had abruptly ruptured. Unbearable, terrifying brightness sailing on cherubic wings of gold slid through Eden's eastern threshold to guard the Ets Chay.
And in their hands an extended, blazing chereb appeared, twisting, turning every way, so that none found the way to the tree.
The man and woman stopped in their tracks, caught within the vortex of their last awe-struck savour of paradise, mingled with the unfamiliar stirrings of fear and regret. Until now they still saw the faint, iridescent twists of lights that shot back and forth from the beginning to the end of their vision. Painfully dazzling scoops of blinding white, dances of fire that now made them tremble with dread.
The years came - and went - they knew now what grief meant when their second son had died, and the bittersweet joy that came when they stared at their children's childrenbut the reminder of the world that they had spent so brief a time in did not fade. The tunics that the Jehovah had made for them did not last; its substance perished, a testament of the temporal animal sacrifice, the perennial blood.
Ets Chay. Had they only eaten of it! Then they could have remained perpetually in the presence of the Jehovah, laughing and feasting of the God-life in the cooling film of vapours that rose unfailingly from the Garden.
Somehow they knew no one would see it again, unlessthe cherubim's sword stopped its deadly twirl. Or was there another way - a way that they could not think of, to gain access to the tree of life that they had disregarded?
'Ets Chay -
Hebrew for 'Tree of Life'
Chereb - Hebrew for 'Sword'
