Dear Adam and Eve,

Your story is legendary. Not the happiest mind you, but famous indeed. Stories written, poems recited, songs sung, dances choreographed, paintings varnished; the passion and fire emanating from your story is never-ending. You are the greatest romance and tragedy in the world.

But never mind such things. I didn’t decide to write to you to give you updates on theatrics; I’m writing to you because just the other day, I was looking at a picture of an apple on Google. There was a caption beneath it: Poor Eve. She’ll never live it down. This brought the two of you to my mind, and I wondered if anyone has ever told you this: I am so sorry for the sorrows you’ve suffered.

Not only have songs and other such things have been written about you and your husband, but also theoretical conversations held by some of the most famous theologians of our time continue to wrangle your story to death…trying to figure out where it is you went wrong. Was it lust; lust for the fruit that looked delicious and pleasing to your eye? Was it disobedience, as you held the fruit to your lips and sunk your teeth into its skin? Was it greed, wanting knowledge forbidden to you? Was it gluttony, being overtaken by your senses as you looked upon the fruits deceiving bountifulness? Was it listening to the serpent, not dismissing him at once for questioning your God? Was it you, Eve? Many believe that because it was you who was first tempted that you might be weaker than your husband. Was it you, Adam? Some say that if you’d been watching over her properly she wouldn’t have been seduced. Was it God? A few consider God responsible for being too trusting of the two of you. Was it Satan? Countless wish the foul beast had never existed so that we would still be resting in Eden.

Your suffering didn’t end with your death. I suspect that, if not in heaven, you suffer still—through us. You watch us scowl at the pages of your demise, curse you for your failings, and stumble lost in the chaos left in your wake. There must be nothing worse, except one: in the course of your lives after your expulsion from the garden, like Jesus, you’ve been cursed to suffer a heavy burden: what should have been.

More than anyone, besides your Savior, you know the gravity of sin and what it has cost you. What it must have been like, to know your sons could never be in the way of Lord as you were because of your misdeed; to know there were no words to describe the wonders of Eden, to tell your sons what water and fruit used to taste like, the air used to smell like, the ground used to feel like. Did you feel as if you could teach them anything, that you even had the right as you labored you mistake? When Cain killed Abel, were you as angry at him as you were at yourselves knowing such a thing would not have existed in perfect paradise? So heavy…heavy…heavy, and a bond only the two of you shared. Did this secret bring you closer together or tear you apart? Adam, Eve, did you ever look at each other the same way as you did before? Did it break your hearts?

Sadly the Bible doesn’t say. It doesn’t even say how long you lived, Eve, but you lived even half as long as Adam had, then I hope you’ve found some peace in some of that time. Mankind believes immortality to be a blessing. I suspect you may feel differently. But there is hope.

I don’t know how much you knew or know, how you should know or want to know…but there is a plan. There was a plan all along. Yes, you made a mistake, but there will be a day when all suffering, all pain, all confusion, all regret will be wiped away, washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. You will be forgiven if not already. The serpent that used you will be defeated, crushed under foot in the glory of God. The blood of the Lamb should you want it, shall cover you and make you new. So you just hang tight.

All of this will end.

And in the meantime, I think you’ve been beaten up enough.