Two Sons
One will credit the Lord
The other will spin fable.
One will praise God
The other will honor Babel.
One will live by faith
The other will kill to reign.
One will offer righteous sacrifice
The other will demand selfish gain.
One will teach God’s Holy way
The other will learn anger’s wrath.
One will follow his Father’s plan
The other will walk a worn path.
One will find peace from mother earth
The other will war in spiritual dearth.
One will reap God's blessings of love
We will call him ….. Abel.
One will plot Mahan's curse of Cain.
We will call him ....marked by his own label.
Linda Conkey Shaw & Mark E. Shaw
Copyright May 5, 2011
Mark and I had a fun time writing this poem together. It is a deeper poem about the sons of Adam, Cain and Abel and it is about each of us.
Abel was: obedient, observant, respectful, favored, a sheepherder, a respecter of the earth, younger than Cain, close to his parents,
Cain was: the older of the two. There really is no conclusive evidence to suggest that he was Eve's first born. In Moses we are told that Adam and Eve had both sons and daughters so that there was most likely a family.
As I read through this several times, I was struck with how the story is really about the family of man. This story in many respects represents the first family feud, the first trial of anger, the first jealousy, the first temptation by Satan (outside of the GArden), so the first real trial of choice with a real understanding of all that was taught and without the constant companionship of the Father and his son, Jesus Christ. It was a trial of the Holy Ghost.
We know from the book of Moses that Adam was taught how to find direction from God while outside of the Garden. He was instructed how to offer sacrifice and how to live by faith. He was to teach his children these things. The children were to learn from their parents.
The first generation: Here's the catch. Cain and Abel were never in the garden. They could only listen to stories their parents told. They had not experienced the joy, the peace and the desire to return to Father's presence would not have been as profound as it was in Adam's or Eve's life. What I am suggesting is that temptation came easier to those who did not have the experience to remember. And that is where the faith came into play.
The first faith: Each of us must be born of parents who have lived lives of experience. We can choose to accept their advice or reject it. If we reject it then we must take responsibility for our own choice and the paths we trod. Each of us when we leave our homes are like Adam and Eve, we are cast from a garden where all of our needs have been met: food, clothing, shelter, love. We must learn to not only fend for ourselves with regards to food, shelter and clothing, job, etc, (the physical needs) we must also learn to love one another.
Cain would have been the oldest. He would have experienced more of Adam and Eve's mistakes as they first left the garden. He would have seen and felt more of his parent's frustrations. His parents needed to make sure they countered these experiences with lessons of love and acceptance. I'm not blaming Adam or Eve.. I'm not blaming anyone. Life is meant to have experience. WE all must have it the experiences we need to grow. Each of our lives are custom created by a loving God to help us grow the most.
This story of Cain choosing to walk away from all of the love of his mother is one to help us learn about not anger and murder, but rather the reasons anger comes.
Why does anger come to you? Are you content? Are you frustrated by life's demands? Are you living in fear of not getting all you want or are you putting your faith in God to give you all you need?
Anger comes to us all. It is part of being human, but anger only becomes a liability, a disability, a curse of mahan, when we allow is to rule our lives. Anger put to good use can be a good catalyst for change... or it can destroy ... relationships (families) , lives(Abel) , livelihoods (Cain lost his sacred trust with the earth and was called to be a vagabond) . It can become our label. or we can choose God and become able.
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