Jewells of Thought

Maybe it’s because I had that childlike faith growing up in a God-fearing family and church family or just because this is a story from the beginning of time in Genesis. I thought Cain and Abel were more of the age of children when this event happened. Sometimes age doesn’t always factor into the stories when we tell it as teachers I suppose. The age is secondary to the heart and character of these boys who may have been very mature and married men.

Of course the word mature may depend in Abel’s case he was a good and honorable man and lived to do as the Lord commanded. Cain on the other hand may have been the first born and his hands and heart loved to toil in the earth, but his heart was not where it should have been. I suppose he would be called a vegetarian except I believe he still ate his mother’s stew and then quite possibly his wife’s later on. He would predate the Climate Alarmists of the 21st Century throwing Pumpkin Soup on the Mona Lisa.

This event sent a shudder through Adam and Eve’s family which at this point in Ms. Smith’s book was 31 children. I believe if I remember correctly Eve was close to 100 years at this point. How do you even count the years in Eden? Was it years or just months or days? They were created as adults how do you count your birthday when the days didn’t matter at that particular time on the earth? Does this not somehow boggle your brain as it does mine? Adam and Eve didn’t even have a clue what a baby of theirs would like or come out of Eve like. They only knew that their baby would be different from how the animals gave birth. Now isn’t that a thought to marinate on?

Death came only to the animals for sacrifices to God for their sins. Death was about to become a closer reality. There was a difference in the animals than there was in the garden they were more wild now and would not obey the humans commands as they once did. How incredible is this that Ms. Smith was able to visualize the first chapters of Genesis and find the lush goodness of what God had created in the garden of Eden? Yet sin had come and God’s plans for a future Messiah were shaped due to that serpent’s follies.

Cain brought the first murder mystery into the Bible. Abel was a righteous man and his blood was crying out to God. Cain had no apparent remorse for his actions. The first widow was made and Adam and Eve had to bury their first child before they were yet done procreating themselves. Think of the closeness of the brothers and sisters, husbands and wives already mated. This was their brother whether their older or younger one it didn’t matter death had never come this close to this massive family. Then what of Abel’s widow? Did they already have children or not? The first widow what decisions did she have to now make for herself? Remarrying? Waiting to remarry? Could she love another man as she did Abel this was all so new to her and to the family.

Have you ever thought about these questions before? I find it fascinating as I continue reading this book. I have never delved so deep into this story it’s refreshing and so unfamiliar to us in this 21st Century world we live in now compared to the first days after God created the world.