Bible Characters You Love to Hate

Okay... here's a creative project: pick a character from the Bible— one you don't like, can't forgive, have huge judgments about. Is it Satan? Judas? Amnon? (He would be high on my list.) Write a story that helps explain why this person might have done what they did. It's a little like walking a mile in another's shoes...

This is my story for Cain.

You know how some people just seem to be born with a dark cloud over their heads? No matter how they try, or what they do, that cloud follows them. Nothing seems to work out right. Ever. That was Cain's story.

He had the dubious honor of being the first baby to be born. I say dubious, because while being first may be a good thing some of the time, in Cain's case it meant a lot of not so terrific things.

First of all, Eve was in no way prepared for just how much having a baby can hurt. How could she? Cain was her first. No Dr. Spock books, no trained obstetricians, no demerol... not even the benefit of Lamaze. Adam was a waste. He just sat by wringing his hands, wracked with guilt, while Eve screamed and hollered her way through labor. He didn't even know enough to boil water... and all that blood!

Eve's punishment seemed to be disproportionately harsh compared to Adam's. He felt so much to blame that he had to deflect it somewhere. (We already know that Adam was not the best at taking responsibility or being accountable. After all he had blamed Eve for the whole apple affair and now who could he blame for her pain? Obviously Cain.) Women seem to have a knack for losing track of how much something might have hurt, especially when nursing their child can ease the memory, but for the man who must sit by and watch the suffering... guilt is a dangerous thing.

All in all, it was a trauma for both of them... and what did they have to show for it? A squealing, mewling bit of a thing, helpless as... well, as a new born babe. Adam had seen animals give birth, but they certainly never pitched the fit Eve did. And baby goats could stand on their own in a matter of hours. What an adjustment. There was an intruder in bed between them now, always nursing or crying or fouling his fig leaves.

By the time Abel came along, they were both better prepared.

The boys grew. Cain, in an eagerness to get some approval from Adam, went to work with his dad in the fields. Abel, not wanting to get his fingernails dirty, took up sheep herding. He brought his momma a warm wooly coat for winter. That, and the smell of roasting meat on the spit was a tough act to follow for Cain, who arrived with a sack full of turnips for dinner.

The straw that broke the big brother's back, though, was when both boys set off to make their offerings to God. Wouldn't you know it... God didn't like turnips any more than his parents had. Cain's gift was rejected and Abel's was accepted. Cain snapped. Killed his brother on the spot.

Now Cain was shackled with another first in history... the first murder... the first fratricide. (Of course a case could be made that the Ten Commandments had yet to be delivered, but it was still a very uncool thing to do.) Cain was exiled. Adam's sin was visited on his sons in different manifestations... but delivered it was.