Broken

BROKEN

Now the snake was more clever than any other animal that God had made. One day, the snake went into the garden. And Satan spoke through the snake and said to Eve.

“Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?”

Eve said, “We can eat of all of the fruit. But we can not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden. God said we must not eat it or even touch it or we will die.”

The snake said, “You will not die. God knows when you eat this fruit you will be just like him. You will know everything both good and evil.

Eve looked at the fruit. She saw that it was good to eat. She saw that it could make her wise. So she took some and ate it. And then she gave some to Adam and he also ate it. At that moment something inside of them changed. They saw that they were naked and they felt shame. So they took some leaves and put them together to make clothes.

In the evening, Adam and Eve heard God walking about in the garden. When they heard him, they hid themselves among the trees.

And God said, “Adam where are you?”

Adam said, “I heard you so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.

God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the fruit that I told you not to eat?”

Adam said, “The woman you gave me brought me fruit and I ate it.”

Then God asked Eve, “What have you done?”

And she said, “The snake persuaded me and I ate some of the fruit.”

And God spoke to the snake. He said, “Because you have done this, you are cursed. You will crawl in the dust as long as you live. You and your children and the woman and her children will always be enemies. And one day you will bite her child’s foot, but he will step on your head.”

And God said to the woman, “You are going to have great pain when you give birth to a child. And you will want to rule your husband, but he will rule over you.”

And God said to Adam, “Because of what you have done, the ground is cursed. It will grow weeds. And you will have to work hard and struggle to be able to grow your own food.”

Then God made clothes for Adam and Eve from the skins of animals. And he put them out of the garden he had made for them. So the man and the woman left the garden and they could never return.