Am I my brothers keeper? Genesis 4:9 (NIV)
Most Wanted One – Keepers – Series 1 – Part 3
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(Go to Series 2)
When I gave birth to my firstborn, I had his name picked and ready. In fact, we had been calling him by it long before he breathed outside of my womb. It took me a couple of years and a little heartbreak to fall pregnant with him, so when I saw his little frame for the first time on a sonogram, I instantly knew that the name I had chosen long before conception wasn’t right for him.
A few days later, we had a new name picked out that fit perfectly:
Samuel Connor.
Samuel means “God hears.”
And Connor: “Most wanted one.”
(Samuel is also the name of my favorite character from the West Wing which I may or may not have been binging at the time… just saying).
The Divine had heard my prayer, and my child, my most wanted one, had finally arrived. Every time I think of his name, whether I’m whispering it in love or yelling it because of #mumlyfe, the story lives inside the words.
Our ancient mothers and fathers often named their children the same way: the names represented the season, hopes, tragedies, and details of the birth, times and heart of their parents and their day and age.
When Eve gave birth to Cain, as she pushed him painfully from her body, she cried the words: “I have acquired a man with God.” Cain's name in Hebrew is Kayin, which comes from the word, Kanah, which means “acquirer.”
Cain didn’t just take on the name; he embodied it: As Eve acquired a son with God, Cain the “acquirer,” became a farmer, and sought to ground himself in possessions and land. After all, the ground is indispensable. Once acquired, it gives you security, belonging, and power.
By comparison, everything else is transitory. Everything else comes and goes. Even we come and go. We die and are gone, but not land. Land sticks around, and having it makes us feel real; it makes us feel anchored to something that lasts. And when we control land? It can give us a sense of permanence.
But Abel’s name means something almost the opposite of Cain's:
In Hebrew, Abel is pronounced hevel, which means breath and emptiness. It's the same word used in Ecclesiastes 1:1: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” says Solomon. Except what he's really saying is “hevel havalim.” Everything is hevel; everything is breath. Life is a vapor.
Perhaps Eve named her sons out of the tension between acquiring security and the fleeting nature of it, and all of life.
Eve exclaimed that she had become a partner with God in creating new life (Genesis 4). And then, Cain, her son, chose his own path to that same thrilling goal. Not being a woman, he couldn’t bear fruit from his own body. Instead, he cultivated the fruit of the land. He could do through the land what Eve did through her body. He could plant a fertile seed in the ground, and become a partner with the Divine in the wondrous unfolding of life.
What does this have to do with the sacrifices the brothers brought to God?
Well, what happens when you are so connected to that which you create that you feel you own it, you need it, you want it for yourself? When your passions begin to own you? When that which one cherishes, was not made by him alone, but was in partnership with someone else?
What happens when you live with a sense of the fleeting and impermanent nature of life? When you understand your end of the creative partnership with the divine and others? When you know that breath is what keeps you alive until the day it won’t anymore?
One seeks insurance, the other offers gratitude.
Go to No Mention of Sacrifices – Keepers – Series 1 – Part 4 »
Written by Liz Milani
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