Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time . . .
. . . there lived a man and a woman. They were the happiest people on the planet. True, they were the only people on the planet, but they were still terrifically happy.
Their names were Adam and Eve, and God made them. He made them in his image, little mirrors to reflect God’s glory. And like everything else God made, he made them good.
It was a wonderful time to be God’s children in God’s wonderful world.
Unfortunately, things didn’t stay happy and wonderful for long.
On one very bad day, Adam ate from the only tree God had declared off-limits. Adam failed. It was a terrible day, the second-worst day in the history of the world.
A snake had tricked Adam and Eve and told them a lie about the fruit. He said they would be like God if they ate it. But actually, the opposite was true. When they are the fruit, they found themselves far away from God.
They had disobeyed God’s word and believed the lie of that devilish Snake instead of the truth. Being near to God—and having him draw near to us—would not be easy any longer.
God was not happy with Adam and Eve. He wasn’t happy with the Snake either. God put a curse on the man and the woman and the Snake and everything else.
He kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden Paradise he had made for them. It wasn’t possible for a people who were so bad to live with a God who is so good.
The Biggest Story
Kevin DeYoung
Featuring chapters that are short enough to be read in one sitting, this illustrated Bible storybook imaginatively retells the biblical narrative in one continuous story, helping kids connect the dots from Genesis to Revelation.
They had to go.
But before they left, God made a promise. He promised that the evil Serpent, the Devil, would always be at war with Eve and her children.
Now that doesn’t sound like a very nice promise—that bad guys and good guys would fight all the time. Who wants to be in a war that never ends?
But here’s where the good part of the promise comes in: God promised that one of Eve’s children would, someday, eventually, sooner or later, crush the head of that nasty Snake.
Nobody knew when or how, but she would have a child to put things right.
This article is adapted from The Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden by Kevin DeYoung and illustrated by Don Clark.
