The Crunch and The Cross

 “The Lord said, ‘What have you done?’”   Genesis 4:10

With one crunch it all came crashing down.  A wily serpent, a weak woman, and a wimpy man chose themselves above their God, and Paradise was lost.  They fell hard—and far.  The snake wiggled away in the dirt.  Eve writhed in pain as she gave birth.  Adam worked the ground which was now cursed.  And life as we know it began on earth.  The sun never shines on any place where the deceptiveness of sin is not a reality and where the labor required to bring forth life and make a living is not difficult. 

Adam’s first two sons example our dilemma.  Cain was unwilling to repent and return with a right sacrifice, and instead, he turned his wrath on his brother—not in a moment of passion but in premeditated malice.  Abel unsuspectingly followed Cain into the field and met his fate, and though the evidence was buried, God needed no exhibit to know the truth.  As fig leaves had failed to hide his parents’ fall, dirt did little to cover Cain’s crime.  Once again God came calling, and as before, not with an accusation but asking for an answer.  “Where is your brother?”  Like his dad, Cain had little to say but hell to pay.  The cycle had started, and so it continued.  “Adam, where are you?”  “Cain, what have you done?”  The questions still come as God still calls.  Like those before us, we have no good reply, but He has the grace-filled answer.  “For the sin of one man, Adam, caused death to rule over all. But even greater is God’s abundant grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.”(Romans 5:17).

One day, the wicked serpent will be wiped out for his head has been crushed by the heel of the Holy One. The pain of birth will be eclipsed by the joy of being born again, and the curse of the ground will cave as graves erupt with life incorruptible.

With one crunch, all was ruined, but with one cross, all was restored.