“Why doesn’t he move anymore?”
“Shh...Look at his eyes,” Christopher said.
Matthias and Christopher stood together at the edge of the clearing leading to the pond. In their confusion they moved closer together, shoulders touching. On the lush grass lay a naked man. They had been tracking him for a long time now: watching and learning. Not sure what he was much less why he was. But they did know their job - to bear witness to all the things that had happened since the first day. And so much had happened.
For what seemed like eons, the man had moved through the forest, looking at everything. He would bend down and scratch in the dirt, then stand and scratch his head. He spent hours under trees, watching the movement in the branches, then sighing suddenly as he stood and moved on. Many times, the man spoke, especially when the other creatures were near, but neither Matthias or Christopher were never close enough to make sense of his words. They had been told to stay close, but not to interfere. As far as they knew, the man did not know of their presence.
And so, after a such a long time of following the man through the forest, watching him as he in turn watched the other creatures, he came to this pond, to the thick green mat, and lay down. This, in itself, was not unusual. Christopher and Matthias had often seen him lie down and stare at the clouds in the sky. Or if it were night, he would watch the stars and moon.
But this time was different - very different. The man had not moved at all for such a long time that Christopher and Matthias finally crept closer to him than ever before. They could see the gentle rise and fall of his chest, the dappling of the leaves from a near-by tree on his legs. They were so close they could see his hair was not just one color, but each strand seemed to be a different shade. His curls spread out beneath his head, one hand resting to his side, the other stretched out in the grass, palm up as if waiting to receive something from the sky.
It was his eyes that captured them, that drew them even closer. They were shut as he sometimes did when looking at the bright sky with the sun directly overhead. But eventually he would always look down and open them again. Now they could see his eyes moving back and forth, back and forth, beneath the frail lids. A slight breeze stirred and carried a strand of hair across his face. Still the man did not move.
Matthias jerked suddenly and stood up straight. “Did you hear that?”
Christopher didn’t reply, Matthias could see, because he had fallen face down on the grass beside the man. Matthias followed suit.
“Now watch, Christopher. Matthias, look! See what I am about to do.”
Genesis 2:19-22
Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.