While my husband worked in the field, I walked to the river. Adam made me promise to be careful and to return before the sun reached a certain angle, and I agreed.
Although we were no longer in a splendid garden, I still enjoyed seeing the blooming flowers and the variety of animals that God had created. The river was always a great place for seeing wildlife, for animals drank the water and ate the herbs and grains that grew on the banks.
I saw a herd of the striped horse that Adam had called zebras. I wondered why they needed striking black and white coloration in a world of greenery, but perhaps God had created them that way for a purpose.
Some of the zebras had foals, which I assumed had been born the same way as horses. The young zebras kicked up their back hooves and chased each other. They seemed to be having fun.
However, I noticed that the adult zebras seemed unhappy. They snorted and stamped the earth with their hooves, sniffing the air and repeatedly making their strange sound. They seemed to be looking for something, quickly but thoroughly scanning the landscape.
Suddenly, they ran, still making as much noise as possible. Clouds of dust flew from their pounding hooves. I wondered why they were playing a game when they didn't look happy.
At that moment, I saw the lionesses. They ran after the zebras as if they had a serious purpose. If this was a game, neither party seemed to enjoy playing.
One of the lionesses leaped onto a zebra's back, and three others helped her pull it down. I was puzzled. Didn't the lionesses understand that if they weren't careful, they could accidentally hurt the zebra?
The growling and roaring of the large cats made me feel cold, and I felt my heart pounding in my chest. I wished I were far away. Surely the zebras had this exact feeling, and that was why they fled from the lionesses.
Now I understood fear. It was an unpleasant sensation, but it was no doubt given to us by God to keep us safe from danger. I felt a pang of guilt as I realized that if not for the sin Adam and I had committed, there would be no such thing as danger, for there death would not exist. There had been no fear for any of the inhabitants of the Garden of Eden.
The pinned zebra stopped kicking, and I realized it had died. My eyes widened in horror. Why had the lionesses killed it?!
As I continued to watch, the large cats ripped the flesh from the zebra's body and ate it. When had this horror overtaken them?! In the Garden of Eden, lions had eaten only plants. What had possessed these animals to eat the flesh of the zebra?! Did all lions consume flesh, or were these lionesses simply influenced by evil?!
Then I understood. The birds had swooped at me when I watched their baby hatch. The zebras had felt fear when they scented the lionesses. Death had entered the world, so animals now killed each other to survive. The animals that could be eaten had to defend themselves against their attackers.
I wondered if there was a way to tell which animals would kill others. Pandas had sharp teeth and claws, but so far, Adam and I had only seen them eating the plant we called bamboo. Elephants were massive, but they ate only plants as well. Foxes were smaller than dogs, but I later discovered that they would eat tiny animals. Wolves looked no different than dogs, but Adam and I would lose countless sheep over the years to packs of wolves, whereas dogs would fight to protect our flocks or bark to alert us of any unusual sound that may indicate danger.
Then there were beasts that killed other creatures, but they also risked being eaten. A serpent could eat a mouse, but hawks were known to attack serpents. A bird may eat a locust, only to be killed by a cat.
A chilling thought would forever haunt my mind: Had God not given us dominion over all creatures, Adam and I may have been hunted as well.