The Eve + Mary Diaries: December 1

Are you willing to believe in something you don't understand?

I am writing an Advent series for Hadley and Harper, and sharing my work with those who might find it useful. After today, my essays will be available to paid subscribers (Tuesday and Thursday essays, the days I typically blog, will be available for free). Along with the essay, I will have a creative activity that gives teens an opportunity to reflect and respond to the story.

I once saw a painting of Mary and Eve facing each other in what I assume was the Garden of Eden. Mary is stomping on the snake - the devil - and in a wordless exchange, telling Eve, “I’ll take it from here. I got this.”

First of all, how is it possible that Eve is in the Garden of Eden? I thought the Bible made it pretty clear Eve was not allowed back in. There’s an angel with a big flaming torch at the entrance, and I think the story goes that God told the angel, “Listen, if Eve shows up, you can’t let her back in here. Wave your flaming torch at her and be all, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PASS!’ I think that’ll work.”

Once, when I was a kid and eating dinner with my family, for some reason or another we were talking about Adam and Eve and my mom began to say, “Did you know when Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden that…,” and I interrupted her and finished her sentence: “there was an angel guarding the entrance?”

I can remember this moment clear as a Michigan summer day. I was reaching for the chicken or the broccoli, but actually it was probably my mom’s homemade bread because we are talking about religious things and I won’t lie - I didn’t eat many veggies and I had issues with meat, but I never met a carbohydrate I didn’t want to devour.

“How did you know this?” my mom asked, and I remember this too because I could tell I surprised her, and it made me feel good to impress her with my Biblical knowledge.

And besides, you don’t forget stuff like that. I looked at that painting and the first thing I thought was, “Where’s the angel? How’d she get back in? How can this be?” Eve isn’t supposed to be there.

Second of all, I know these Biblical people lived to be like 976 years old, but there’s no way Eve was still alive by the time Mary shows up. And if she were alive, I kind of feel like she’d say to Mary, “Honestly? Can you step on me instead of the snake? Because I am legit exhausted. You were not here when this whole thing went down. You have no idea how much trouble my eating this damn apple caused.”

I wonder if I’m getting ahead of myself. Do you know about the apple? And do you know that Adam and Eve were not supposed to eat it? That it was put in the center of the garden and God said they can eat anything else, but not this. Not this red, shiny apple. Don’t touch it. Don’t sniff it. Don’t even get close to it.

Once, when I was in preschool, we were gluing spices onto paper for reasons I’ll never know, but one of the spices was hot pepper flakes.

“Don’t eat it! Don’t eat it!” my preschool teacher kept saying as she shook flakes onto baby blue card stock laid out in front of us.

As soon as she passed me, I licked my finger, pressed it on the flakes, and then stuck them in my mouth. I spent the rest of the morning hiding in my cubby so my teacher wouldn’t hear my sobs or see the drool coming from my tongue of fire.

“Well, then that was your punishment,” you might say. “Banishment from the arts and crafts table.” This could explain why I don’t cook all that well, and also why I can’t learn any craft to save my life.

It might also explain why I have never stopped trying to learn.

My confession is this: I think I might’ve eaten the apple, too. I think I might be a lot like Eve. I might even be worse. I mean, if I ate hot pepper flakes without so much as a flinch of hesitation, how much easier would it have been to eat an apple?

I like thinking Eve is a part of who I am, and I am a part of who she is. This is why I love the painting so much: it brings disruption to a well-worn story. I am grateful for the possibilities it suggests and for the questions that brim to the surface when I think of Mary and Eve facing each other.

I’m telling you about this painting because it helps me believe in the mystery of this very strange, very disturbing, very fractured story. I believe art - whether it is painting, or music, or writing, and maybe even sports - is a manifestation of our imagination and our willingness to create something from it. Before you believe any of this, I want you to interact with it. My hope is that in interacting with the story, you’ll begin to connect with it.

And connection is the beginning of belief.

Reflect and Respond:

1. Read Genesis Chapter 3, and and Luke Chapter 1. What do you notice about Eve and Mary in these chapters? What do you wonder?

2. Draw a picture that integrates Eve and Mary’s story. What would it look like if the two met today, in our town? Where would they meet? What do you think they’d say to each other?