A Few Years

And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD.  Genesis 4:3

An infamous incident follows hard upon this verse, but today I wanted to look at that phrase at the start: in the process of time it came to pass... During that time, Cain has not only been born, but grown up to the point where he becomes a farmer of the ground and able to offer the fruit of his labor to the Lord. We do not know for sure what age this might be, and as they lived so long back in those days it might even be longer than we might think. Cain was perhaps in his 20's at that time, maybe even his 40's. 

Somewhere in among those early years, Cain might have asked the question Adam had come to dread: "Dad, what's a girl?" No, not that one. The inevitable question about that garden over there, and Cain being the farmer would be the more likely to ask. 

"Why can't I go farm in there, Dad? Why does that flaming sword keep us out, Dad?" 

Adam, being a little slow of thought that day from the dreaded question finally coming to be spoken, tells it like it was,"Well, son, your mother was talking to this serpent, see, and before I knew it she handed me this fruit and I was standing there naked." 

Eve immediately jumps up on the defensive, "Blaming it all on me, eh? Who stood there like a blind ox and didn't stop me even though he knew it was wrong?" 

Meanwhile, Morty the blind ox, also known as the family tractor, is standing outside thinking, "Now what did I do?" 

Defensiveness may not be pretty, but it usually follows an offense. We may be helpless to get the old brain functioning in time to stop that defensive reaction, but it was the person on the offensive that brings it out of us. Finding a gentler answer, keeping the tongue from jumping up in flames, and stopping that defensive reaction can come to us by the work of God's Holy Spirit. 

Lovely little snow this morning! 
Bucky