Quid Sum [Poetry]

Don't Live The Legacy

So, this will be my first non-poem in this collection of my thoughts. I guess we'll see how that works out.

Something interesting that I've seen mentioned a lot recently is the story of Cain. Not of Abel so much, but specifically Cain. And for good reasons; the implications of what he did can have a resounding impact on each of us today. Now I read a lot of murder/mystery stories, so when I first read the story of Cain I just thought of it as another murder story, though this one had a simpler solution--the detective on the case happened to be God, who knows everything. But what I've come to realize--and you must, too--is that this wasn't a simple case of everyday, commonplace fratricide.

If you read the Bible from the beginning with no prior knowledge of what happens in it (and maybe some of you have done just that), I bet you'd think it would be a story of redemption from the very beginning. Adam and Eve live a perfect life in the Garden of Eden, but their sin got them, and the rest of us, banned from that garden forever. You'd think that they would learn their lesson, that they would make the best of what they had and their children would grow up to be strong and righteous. But no, that just didn't happen.

The firstborn son in the history of humanity murdered his own brother out of jealousy. Have you ever thought about it like that? Cain was the firstborn son. And it wasn't just of that one family, he was the firstborn of everyone who has ever walked the earth. Adam and Eve were created by God; he was born. We have all descended from his line, are related to him in some minute way.

But let's forget the genetics, that's not what's important. What's important is that this guy set the standard for the rest of humanity. He was supposed to be a sign of redemption, supposed to send the message that even if we make one mistake, we as humans are still basically good creatures. We were rooting for him to show us a better way to live apart from sin, but he did just the opposite. Instead, he committed the first fratricide, was the cause of the first death in the history of the world.

Just think about that one for a second. The firstborn of all humanity, the one who was supposed to set an example for all of us, killed his brother. Quite the legacy, huh? 

But that isn't the only part of this I find interesting. This passage also has some of the most fascinating and chilling wording in all of Scripture--at least in my opinion. Genesis 4:7--"But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires have you, but you must rule over it." I'm taking that from the NIV and I don't speak a word of whatever language Genesis was originally written in (was it Hebrew?) so I'm not sure if that's an accurate translation, but if it is then that image really creeps me out. Quite fitting now with Halloween just having passed, actually.

I think it's the personification that really unnerves me about this, you know? It grips sin in reality, gives it substance. Normally we can distance ourselves from sin, from the idea of it, and push it to the back of our minds. And who knows, maybe that’s even what this verse is trying to illustrate. But this makes sin real, and when you read this you just know that it’s close, and it can get you.

“Sin is crouching at your door.” Does that make you as nervous as it does me? Do you just want to run to the nearest door and lock it up tight to keep the sin out? As if you could if you wanted to. Think about this image of a door: when the door is closed, you can’t see what’s on the other side. You could be just inches away from whatever is lying in wait for you and you would have no idea it’s even there. But when the door is open, you can see. Doors are portals, holes in a barrier that can be travelled through.

 The problem is that they can be travelled through both ways. You can escape out of doors, but sometimes the very thing you’re running from is waiting on the other side. You can hide behind doors, but sometimes the evil can get in anyway. “Sin is crouching at your door”…okay, but what next?

Many of us will open the door to sin and invite it in. Cain chose this path in the end.

Some will hide on the safe side of the door, but sin will sneak in when we’re not looking and get us anyway.

Sometimes sin will change its appearance and look like an angel. We’ll open the door to it for protection, and that’s when it strikes.

Maybe some of us will hide in the corner farthest from the door, always watching it, waiting for something to try and get through the cracks. Always living in fear that it might actually someday happen, too paranoid to live our lives. Fear of the sin consumes us whole, until in the end we forget the one thing that could truly save us from the sin: Love.

But a few of us, a brave and honorable few, will open the door and face the sin. They will recognize it for what it truly is, a dark and evil pit of hate and shame and death. And those few will do to sin exactly as God commanded Cain: “Rule over it.”

Which one are you? Do you accept sin as being a part of your life, enjoy it even? Will you be tricked by its false promises and gentle assurances and let it burrow into your heart? Do you create a barrier around you to protect you from it while you hide? Or are you one of the few who are willing to fight against it, to stand for what is right despite the evil surrounding you? I’m not sure which category I fall into, but I know that I am making a constant effort to fall into the last one. Even if it really is a fall, I know it will be worth it in the end.

And that is what Cain, ultimately, failed to realize.