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PARADISE
The day for the MRI appointment came.
Taking a deep breath, I positioned myself on the flat bed before it glided into the darkened tunnel of the MRI machine.
Despite being provided noise-blocking earphones, the clang, clang, clang, clang of the MRI jarred me.
With each reading, I held my breath until light-headed.
The tunnel looked like a coffin. My heart quickened at the thought. Squinting my eyes shut, my mind wandered to something more wonderful—paradise.
THE GARDEN
Adam and Eve, perfectly made for each other, raced hand-in-hand, through an endless garden bordered by ferns and a myriad of flowers—orchids, hibiscus, lilies, and more. The air was thick with a delicious smell of perfume and sultry earth.
Two silhouettes, outlined by the setting sun, beheld a cliff that overlooked a river. Holding hands, the fearless figures jumped in, creating rippling ringlets of turquoise that faded out into the emerald deep.
Refreshed and glowing in the sunlight, the couple strolled into the middle of the garden—a variable orchard filled with every fruit tree imaginable.
Letting go of Adam’s hand, Eve wandered into the center of a ring of trees. Her hair draped over her body like a queen’s robe.
Barefoot on the soft, damp grass, she padded forward. There was a hush and heaviness to the air.
There, towering over her, was the Tree of Life with nearly ripened fruit. Next to it, stood the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. She felt magnetically drawn to its ripe, delectable fruit dangling within arm’s reach.
A hiss tickled the back of her neck. She pivoted to face a vermilion serpent hovering before her. Its body coiled and arched around the lowest branch. “Didn’t God say you must not eat of any fruit in the garden?”
“No, I can eat of any fruit, except this one,” she said, with chin upturned, pointing to the fruit that was suspended in front of her. “God said do not eat or even touch it, lest I die.”
“Are you sure you can trust God?” bid the voice. “Reach up. Grab it. One bite and you will not die. You will become like God, knowing all sorts of things. Why doesn’t He want you to know those things anyway?”
Eve hesitated. But the temptation proved too strong.
With both hands, she plucked the fruit and took a bite, crunching hard until the juice flowed, red as blood, dripping down her chin and through her shaking fingers. Finding Adam, she offered some to him, and he ate it.
With both hands, she plucked the fruit and took a bite, crunching hard until the juice flowed, red as blood, dripping down her chin and through her shaking fingers. Finding Adam, she offered some to him, and he ate it.
BROKEN TRUST
Shame washed over them. They felt helpless, vulnerable. Eve plucked some nearby fig leaves and shared them with Adam in order to cover themselves, but that didn't remove the deep shame they now wore.
“Adam. Where are you?” whispered God.
Both Adam and Eve peeked out from behind a tree. Eve’s whole body burned and shook at the same time.
Adam spoke first. “I don’t want to come out, because I am naked.”
God replied, “Did you eat the fruit I forbade you from eating?”
Adam confessed that he ate the fruit, but blamed it on Eve. Eve blamed it on the serpent. God was grieved and angry, because they had rebelled against him.
Instead of blessing, the earth and its inhabitants received a curse. As a consequence of the first sin, Eve would suffer in childbirth and in relationship with her husband. Adam would suffer frustration and futility in his work.
Instead of blessing, the earth and its inhabitants received a curse. As a consequence of the first sin, Eve would suffer in childbirth and in relationship with her husband. Adam would suffer frustration and futility in his work.
Though they deserved their punishment, God offered Adam and Eve a glimmer of grace. In His great mercy, He provided a way for all humanity to be saved. He told them He would send one of the woman's offspring, the Messiah, or King, to destroy the devil and conquer sin, shame, suffering, and death forever.
The Lord said to the serpent that when Messiah comes, “He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel (Genesis 3:15).”
Strings of venomous saliva blew in the wind as the snake opened its mouth wide in defiance, revealing its four curved teeth. Four teeth, sharp as nails, destined to wound the One and Only Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Genesis 3:1-22). They would pierce His hands and His feet (Psalm 22:16).
Clang, clang, clang, clang. Then, silence. I glided out of darkness and into light. As I rested on the bed, I could breathe again. Holding my protruding belly, I kept thinking about the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis, where life began.
A diagnosis of bilateral renal agenesis would mean death for my child.
Would I trust our Creator in life and in death?
Would I trust our Creator in life and in death?
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well…All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”(Psalm 139:13-16)
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.”(Jeremiah 1: 5, NKJV)
