Eden

So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them;

Genesis 2:19a

+

Adam was given the task not only to till and keep the garden, but also to partake in a form of creation; he was to give names. One by one, God brought the animals before the new man and his first work was to put words to what he saw. St Seraphim of Sarov remarks on this moment saying, "When the Lord commanded him to give names to all the creatures, he gave every creature a name which completely expressed all the qualities, powers and properties given it by God at its creation." The uncorrupted man could look at the creation, comprehend it and express a name that captured its true existence. Thus the world was made again in the mind of Adam, the creation fulfilled by the name it was given, just as God named it "good".

+

Perhaps this could have been the story of man; Adam and Eve becoming the king and queen of creation, together causing the earth to florish by the work of their hands and cultivation of truth in their minds. In the joyous working of soil, in the reaping of earth's bounty, in the rearing of children as mirrors of self and God, in the naming of creation in infinitely new ways- in story, poetry and song, each a fragment of the truth and goodness of the universe shining forth from God. But it was not to remain so in that place.

+

There was yet another who would give names in Eden, yet these were not to reveal truth but to obscure it. He is rightly called the father of lies, the deceiver of mankind, for the first words the serpent spoke to Eve were to stir doubt, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” and when Eve corrected him, he simply replied, "You will not die." A lie against reality itself; one that would lead man to fracture the fabric of that pure world and ripple out to the entirety of the cosmos, leaving nothing untouched. And as the physical world began to shatter, so too did Adam and Eve lose their divine sight; their wisdom to perceive a world vibrant with images of God faded and they no longer saw that which is good.

(Part 2 of 14 of Mimetic Reality series)