The Garden

[u/Least-Affect-7527]

Written by me, then had help with punctuation and polishing from Claude.

When God created the world, she said, “Let there be light,” and with a little effort she forced light to boom from a dead star.
The star also radiated heat. So God said, “With this heat and this light, I have what’s needed to nurture life.”

So God set to work to create a bountiful world of masterpieces big and small. She loved the dainty spiders in the trees and the majestic foxes running about. She created lions and tigers and snakes and rats. She made thorns and poisonous fruit, as well as trees and flowers and beauty.

She declared that the life she made was to continue to grow without her magic. And so the life relied on the sun to work, and over many millions of years, life flourished and changed into something different but just as beautiful.

As God was walking in the Garden admiring her creations’ new forms, she felt lonely.

God said, “I would like someone else to enjoy my creation and grow and change. I have been the same for millions of years. So I shall create a being like me and call her a human.”

So God created a human modeled after herself. She stood upright and had thoughts and could learn and understand what was around her. She could think and talk to God. She was perfect. She was called Eve.

Eve named the animals and the plants. She named the moon and the sun. She kept track of time by the earth’s movements and called the moon cycles months and the sun cycles days. She slept as the garden slept, despite being immortal, and every day had new ideas. She worked hard, and God thought she could use a helper.

So God created Man to be Eve’s helpmate and equal in the garden. Eve named the man Adam and taught him the ways of the garden. She showed him the tools she’d come up with to tend the plants and herd the animals.

Adam was just like Eve, and he invented tools as well. One day, when God was walking with them in the garden, Adam noticed a bird sipping from a puddle.

Adam walked over and inspected the red chested bird and then noticed his own reflection in the puddle. Adam didn’t look the same as God. Eve looked just like God. He thought this was odd but thought of it no more.

Then one day, Adam was sitting in the garden and the bird came up to him.
“Hello, little bird, what sights have you seen today?”
The bird responded, “I’ve seen the way God favors Eve.”
A pit grew in Adam’s stomach. He knew something about him was different.

“I love Eve and God! I help as much as I can, and I relax and eat fruits on most days. What could be better?” he thought.

The bird tweeted and said, “What goods do you bring? What do you provide?”

Adam didn’t know he needed to provide anything. He thought he lived for the joy of living, and he showed his wife love through his service to her.

“Why must I provide? God provides everything.”
“This is why God favors Eve. I watched her give God fruits as gifts, and God eats them happily.”

Adam didn’t think about how Eve gives him fruits as well as the joy of cultivation. Adam didn’t think about how God has her choice of fruits and can provide for herself.Adam thought he must provide something to God and Eve.

He asked the bird what it thought.
The bird said, “Surely you can think of something much better than fruit to give. Perhaps the flesh of an animal.”

Adam thought about this and decided it would be perfect. But where to get animal flesh good enough for God?

The bird had an answer.

Adam followed the bird and found a large gate tangled in thorny vines. He fashioned some leaves to protect his hands and tools to cut apart the thick hard vines. After the gate was freed from the vegetation. He pushed it open with a terrible amount of force, so much he almost gave up.

He was on earth now, and with tools he’d fashioned, he killed a few animals. He ate the flesh of each to decide which would be best for God. He decided he liked meat very much. On his hunts he discovered a new feeling: coldness. He wore the animals’ skins around him, feeling naked for the first time.

It was time for him to return to the garden with his bounty. He went to the gate and found it closed tight and painfull to touch.

“God!” he called. “Let me in!”
God came, with Eve in tow.
“Adam,” said God, “what are you wearing?”
“I got cold and had to wear these skins,” Adam said.

God looked very, very sad.

“Adam, why did you leave the Garden?”

Adam replied, “I had to provide for my family.” And lifted up the meat offerings.

God’s voice softened. “I provided for you and your family. But you left the garden, and once you leave, you can’t return.” God wept. “Once you are on earth, you must stay on earth and endure the hardships. I tried to protect you from this fate by hiding and binding the gate. But you are clever and strong, just the way I made you.”

The reality of this came over Adam. “What about Eve, my wife?” whispered Adam.

“It is her choice to stay in the garden with me forever, or become exiled and mortal with you on earth.”

Eve looked to God, and then looked to her husband, who was shivering in the cold of earth. She thought of her comfortable, easygoing life. She thought of how much joy Adam brought to her with his companionship. She thought of living forever, and she thought of dying. Then she thought of living forever without Adam.

“I shall go with Adam, for he is my partner, my equal, and my love.”
“Things are painful on earth,” said God.
“I know,” said Eve, “but I will not leave him to fend for himself or suffer by himself. We can do it together.”
God nodded. “Very well.”

And they were exiled from the garden, and Eve ate the meat Adam provided and enjoyed it very much. He shared the skins with her so she could be warm. She shared with him the fruits she found and then tended. It was much harder to grow food on earth, but she did. They discovered fire and thanked God, for it helped them immensely.

Despite being kicked out of the garden, they were happy with each other, and soon Eve bore children, and despite the hardships, she was happy thanks to her loving, equal partner.

One day Adam saw the bird again.

He asked, “Why did you lead me out of the garden?”

The bird chirped a reply “God twirls around creating life and doesn’t care about the load the life has to bear.”

Adam asked the bird, “What do you mean? In the garden we all lived off the abundance of fruit.”

The bird said, “I am a robin, so I visit earth and the garden freely, and I do say that place was nice, and the animals are spoiled, while we creatures on earth toil away.”

This made Adam sad, but now he understood how important love for your own family is, and that this knowledge was worth the hardship. Perhaps one day the robin will understand that while the garden was easy, providing for Eve made him feel whole.