Origin Story #11 of 21:

In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens…
The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground,

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;

and man became a living being.  

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east;

and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Gn 2:4-7)

It looked like our origin story was over—“finished” (Gn 2:1-2). The hymn is finished with the seventh stanza, but our origin story continues. To know something of our individual origin, we need a story with plot, interesting characters, suspense, and resolution. Hymn (poetry), and story (narrative) is how the Bible goes. The Exodus story can’t be told without the songs of Mariam and Moses. Songs weave their way through our Christmas story: “The Song of Mary”; or, “the heavenly host praising God and singing ‘Glory to God in the highest…’” (Lk 1-2). That’s how we worship. We gather to sing our hymns of praise; and then, someone will tell a story about God and his way with us. So too with our origin story. It’s worshipful.

The story part takes place “in the day when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” Not “days” as the hymn goes; but “in the day” singular. Like we use the phrase “in the day” meaning a span of time; or, an epic of time during which something memorable happens. Our majestic God who speaks from a distance and calls creation into existence; now comes close forming man from the ground and breathing the breath of life into his nostrils. This is the God we know as Lord—his divine name given to Moses at the burning bush: “I am” for short; or “I am who I am”. A name so precious—so sacred that worshipers just whisper, “Lord.” God is the Creator worshipers have come to know as Lord.

In the story part that follows the hymn, the Lord God plants “a garden in Eden, in the east”; a place suited for “the man whom he had formed.” Not the great expanses of our Hymn; but, a particular garden in the east. Not big like “Let the earth bring forth”; but particular: Out of Eden’s ground “the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Not chaotic waters separated and put into their proper place so that the earth could bring forth vegetation; but, particular water from particular rivers: “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers”—rivers with names, two of which we know to this day: Tigris and Euphrates.

As with the hymn, man is given a vocation. He has responsibilities. Only here, his responsibilities are not so vast as being fruitful and multiplying, and filling the earth and subduing and ruling it. Now, our origin story speaks of a particular vocation suited for a particular place: to care for the garden. For the garden to be the garden, it needs our tilling and keeping. All is well; or is it? There’s more to the story.