No matter what you know about the Bible.
No matter how familiar you are with the story.
THIS MOMENT SHOULD BREAK OUR HEARTS.
WE SHOULD HATE WHAT JUST HAPPENED!
In this story, Adam and Eve have just eaten from the tree they were told not to. The life they had been created for has been shattered. Imagine, a moment that represents the birth place of all the pain, suffering, and hurt you've ever felt--it was here.
Can you imagine what this moment must have been like for Adam and Eve? They had been living in a world where there was no such things as regrets, fears, or anxieties. In the moment that they ate from this tree, they felt certain emotions for the very first time.
EMOTIONS THAT ARE FAMILIAR TO US, THEY DIDN'T UNDERSTAND!
Regret. Doubt. Fear. Uncertainty. Shame. As these emotions entered their bodies, and they felt them for the first time, they didn't know what to call them. They didn't have a name for what they were feeling. All they knew was that it felt foreign. They knew it felt wrong. They knew they wanted to escape it. They hated this feeling. They missed what they had. In this moment, they already missed what the Garden had been.
A CRY TO RETURN TO THAT FORMER WAY OF LIFE WOULD BEGIN HERE, AND ECHO THROUGHOUT THE REMAINDER OF OUR STORY.
From this moment on, this would be the context of the rest of the story. Everyone else in the story would be born into a broken, fallen world. A lifestyle they were never originally created to have. Torn from their home.
As horrible as this was, their separation from Garden life wasn't the worst part of their new lifestyle. Adam and Eve had rejected Gods will for their lives. The Bible will refer to that as sin. The presence of sin in their lives would now separate them, not only from the garden, but most importantly, from their relationship with God.