Not long after the beginning a being fell from the heavens to the earth. Even as the Spirit of God hovered overhead, the Serpent swam the waters below. As light divided from darkness, the Serpent chose the darkness, preferring it to the light. And the Serpent stalked the darkness of that first night. New things began to appear on the earth--dry land, green plants, herbs, trees, fish, birds, creeping things, wild beasts, and livestock of every kind. From his dark hiding place the Serpent inspected each new creature, seeking a victim. And it was bad. From the shadows he eavesdropped on the divine council, adding to its ringing words his own diabolical echo: Let us pervert humankind into beings after our image, reshaping them after our likeness. Let them lose their dominion over the birds of the air, and over the creatures of the sea, and over everything that moves over the face of the ground. And soon it would be so. And as new divine words were uttered to the new creatures, the hiding Serpent whispered, Be barren and divide, and spread your contagion throughout the whole earth. And it was bad. From a hiding place he watched the man fall asleep. Even his evil heart felt wonder and awe as the woman was formed, so like the man, yet so different. But the Serpent vowed, I will devise it so that a man will leave his wife, and a woman her husband, and I will make them to cling to father and mother, and the one flesh shall become two. This too would soon be so. And on the seventh day, as the Almighty rested from His labors and enjoyed fellowship with His creation, the Serpent skulked in the gloom, vowing that he would never rest, but would roam through the earth, insinuating, reviling, perverting, destroying. But the Serpent never realized that the darkness he preferred was really a shadow, a shadow made by a divine light from the future. And that light was illuminating a cross. And it was good; behold, it was very good. |
