Cain and Seth

Here’s another story I’ve been recounting to my colleagues and friends:

About 2 weekends ago, Christian asked us “Why is there war? Why do we fight and kill each other?”

I was silent and waited for P to answer (he takes ‘weekend duty’ since I am responsible for answering all of Christian’s questions during the weekdays).

P started going on about Cain and Abel, and how one was jealous of the other cos the other won God’s favour. This triggered more questions of “what is jealousy?” and “How did Abel gain God’s favour?” We told him that God was pleased with Abel cos Abel offered God the best, whereas Abel kinda gave God his leftovers =7

P continued and said “So we are descendants of Cain…and that’s why we have sin in us..”

At that point, we had just parked at a multi-storey carpark near the Old Airport Road food centre, and were walking down the stairs. I asked P whether he wanted to take the lift instead, cos he had slipped and injured his knees just a week ago. He didn’t hear me, but a few seconds later, said “Let’s go take the lift.” We trekked across to the other side of the carpark and went into the lift, which was just about the point when P said “So Cain is our great great great great great great great greeaaaaat greeeaaaaat greeeeaaaaaat grandfather.”

I stared at P, willing him to keep quiet in a packed lift full of strangers. We reached the ground floor a few seconds later and were heading towards the food centre when a man chased us and said with a look of hesitation “Actually, we are not from Cain’s line. Adam had another son after Cain and Abel and we came from that line.. Sorry I don’t mean to embarrass you..but I know we came from that 3rd son’s line..and from that line came Noah.. you know Noah?”

I laughed out loud at how ignorant he must think we were, to not even know Noah. P immediately accepted being corrected and I thanked the man for telling us.

After the man left us, I told P that God must have had enough of his nonsense, and thought we should not propagate falsehood to our children. =7 A quick check of my electronic bible revealed that Adam’s 3rd son was Seth and yes there was a long lineage down from Seth to Noah..

I took the opportunity to talk to Christian – “You know how you always ask me where God is, why can’t you see him? We may not be able to see Him, but we can feel Him.. just like we cannot see the wind, but we can feel the wind right? And we can see the leaves moving because of the wind..”

Christian caught on and said “Yes! Just like I cannot see God, but God sent a man to talk to us and tell us what is right.”

I beamed and P could not resist taking a dig at me “Wow that is the most profound thing I’ve heard you say since I dated you.” (This coming from a man who got his facts wrong in the first place! =7)

This was a pretty long story, but this showed me how God is in control of everything. What were the chances of us meeting a man who knows this story, a man who was present at the precise time when we were at the lift? I was SOOO comforted the whole day, knowing that He cares, about every little thing, and is present at every moment of our lives. This gives me courage and strength to do what is right by Him, instead of what is conventionally done in this world.