Lost

In the beginning, there was God.

And then there was me. And then there was her.

Don't ask me how we appeared. God just...made us. Yeah, I know it sounds strange, but I can't give you any better explanation than that. One minute we weren't. Then, God took a deep breath and suddenly I was. Then, soon after, I took a nap and when I woke up, she was. And I had a pain in my side, and a small scar. Strange.

Anyway...it wasn't that long ago when we would take daily walks with God. It's not that God was ever absent, but there were particular times of special conversation, times that we looked forward to. Have you ever taken a walk in a garden with God? There's nothing quite like it...especially when the garden is THIS garden.

This garden was a beautiful place to live. Everything we needed was available, every hour of every day. And it was all ours. Ours! We were free to eat, to converse, to play, to do whatever. Well, okay, not exactly "whatever." There was one tree, right in the center of the garden, we were told not to eat from. "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." Should have put up a sign. Aw, who am I kidding? We knew which tree it was. And for a while, we stayed away from it, though every once in a while I caught Eve looking at it, staring at it, with a sort of wondering look in her eyes. Or perhaps that was a wandering look.

Then, just yesterday, we saw a strange sight. A creature we'd never seen before. He looked sort of like a serpent, but then again, he didn't. (And I know what serpents look like, believe me. I had to name all of these creatures! Let me tell you, that was a huge task!) He talked, or at least he seemed to. He told Eve that God had lied to her, to us. The Tree (which is what we had taken to calling it) really wasn't bad for us. In fact, it could be very good. God had said we would die if we ate from it. The serpent said we would be like God. And I saw that same look in Eve's eye again.

It wasn't long before she came over to me, fruit in hand. "Here," she said, "take it. Take a bite. It's really good. Better than I imagined. It just may be the best fruit in the garden!" And I noticed that there was a bite taken out of it. "Eve," I said, "what have you done?" Eve sort of smiled and said, "What I should have done a long time ago. I mean, who is God to tell us what we can and can't do? Go on, eat it." She said. And, God forgive me, I did.

"Eve?" I said.

"Yes?"

"Where are your clothes?"

"What are clothes?"

"I don't know, but I think we need some." And with that, we began to gather leaves to cover ourselves. Up until that moment, we had no idea we were naked. I mean, why didn't God mention such an important thing?

About the time we were done sewing all these leaves together (what a bad idea—so scratchy!), we heard him coming. I'd forgotten. This was the night for our walk in the garden. "Quick!" I said to Eve. "God's coming. We can't let him see what we've done. Hide in the bushes!"

Eve sort of scoffed. "He's God," she said. "You don't think he'll be able to see us?"

"Just do it," I said, and we hid behind a huge tree just as God came around the corner. We watched as he stopped, expecting us to be in the usual place. He looked around. He stared for a long time right at the tree we were hidden behind. How stupid of me to think we could hide from the one who made all of this! And yet, God let on like he didn't know where we were...because he wanted us to come to him. And so, instead of commanding us to come out, he asked a question. A hauntingly, achingly beautiful question.

"Where are you?"

To be honest, I'm not sure anymore. Where am I, indeed. I think...

I think I'm lost.