Then the eyes of both of them were opened and      
they realized they were naked, so they sewed
fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and the woman heard the sound of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and
they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9. But the Lord God called to the man, "where are you?"
11. Who told you . . .
      13. What is this you have done . . .
 

Hiding seemed the only solution for Adam and Eve,
but it had no effect to conceal them.

First they hid their shame behind
the biggest fig leaves,
the futile hiding of sin in ridiculous solutions.

Frightened guilty pair, grasping for a way to
survive God and . . .
survive without Him.
Cringing in humiliation, frozen by terror.
Looking for dark places to conceal them
and dreading the footsteps of God.

Living now the very existence of Satan.
Shame, guilt, anger . . . God as the enemy
and fear, the darkness that
saturated their souls.

Their newly acquired "knowledge" turned out to be
merely the self-conscious sight of
their own destitution.
Insolvable and unbearable.

Intruders now in Eden's Bliss.
The birthplace of their beginning,
and lush garden of their "belonging" . . . over.

Yet this Dreamer of their being,
this God they had displaced,
still spoke and called,
searched and asked His awful questions.
"Where are you?"
"Who told you?"
"What have you done?" 

Adam and Even answered those Divine Imperatives.
Yes, they gave their answers. Quite willingly.
Most confidently. Convinced of their validity.

The man blamed the woman.
"The woman whom You gave me."
The woman blamed the serpent.
"The serpent deceived me."

Neither was responsible and
by subtle accusation, God was the culprit.

God gave the man this woman.
He let the serpent in the garden.
God failed to control it, to fix it, or keep it
so . . . God was to blame.
"Surely you see, God."

They put their guilt over onto God,
sealed their separation from Him
and brought forth the curses that
would chasten their souls down
to the last corner of responsibility
and the final possibility of truth. 

They had given the wrong answers to
the Holy Questions. 

He who knows all, demands that we also know . . .
where we cower,
what we ruined,
and who we heard.

We - who all side with His Hater -
we too will answer.
All the questions. 

We, the current Adam, the present Eve
are still believing our gauzy excuses,
blaming God for His incompetence.

And we are ever crouching behind our tree
but we are not . . . hidden. 

Thank God! we are not hidden.

Copyright © 2001 Martha Kilpatrick