Genesis 4:1-17

“It’s time to offer our sacrifices to God,” Adam announced one morning. “Go select your best.”

Each followed by his butterfly, Cain, and Abel went off in different directions to gather what they would bring for the sacrifice.

Later that day, clouds gathered above as the men below stacked stones for the altar. Adam kept an eye on the darkening sky as they gathered the wood. Three butterflies hovered nearby.

“Abel, you’re first.”

As Abel lifted his lamb onto the altar, the sun broke through the clouds. The three butterflies fluttered with excitement. Cain’s was worried. Would the clouds hold their positions for Cain? The butterfly worried about Cain’s thoughts. Why did Abel get to go first?! I’m the older brother! He should be second to offer his sacrifice!

All three men sighed in relief. God was pleased with this offering. The butterflies flew over the men and perched on a leafy branch behind them.

As the fire eagerly consumed Abel’s sacrifice, men and butterflies watched the clouds gathering together. Cain’s butterfly knew the weather signs. He hovered near his man.

“Now yours, Cain.”

Cain lifted his basket of crushed grain heads onto the cut-up wood. He had crushed his best. Then, to fill the basket, he had taken more grain and crushed it until his basket was full. His mother had given him some olive oil to pour over it to create an aroma pleasing to the Lord.

A raindrop fell. Then another, followed by a third. Holding his breath, Cain started the fire. The rain that continued to fall did not extinguish the flames, but he struggled to keep them alive. His butterfly fought to stay in the air amid the drops falling onto his wings.

Nobody spoke as Cain’s offering reluctantly burned. The other butterflies flew to the cover of a branch with more leaves above it.

When the offering was completed, Adam and Abel turned away to resume their normal duties.

Cain stood by the altar, his red face buried in his hands. He heard God’s voice, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”*

The disheartened man did not move. His butterfly hovered behind him, fearing God also knew the man’s thoughts.

# # #

Later in the day, Cain, unaware of the butterfly following him, invited his brother to walk with him in the field. As the anger at feeling rejected by God built, the older brother picked up a stone.

He almost dropped it to cover his ears as he felt someone screaming at him. “No! No! Don’t! Don’t do it, Cain!” He looked around. The only living thing near him, besides his brother, was that pesky butterfly that followed him everywhere. It was flapping its wings furiously right in front of him.

With his free hand, he swiped the butterfly away and with the other, he lashed out with the stone, leaving Abel bleeding, dying at his feet. He knelt down, feeling the younger man’s last breath.

“No! No!” The butterfly tried to shout using the only way to communicate with Cain. “It’s not Abel you hate. You’re angry at God for raining on your sacrifice. You don’t understand why!”

Too late, Cain realized that he was not as angry at Abel as he was at God for raining on his offering.

Abel’s butterfly dropped to the ground by Abel’s body and did not move. Cain’s hovered behind the older brother. Safety usually involved staying out of Cain’s sight, but even more so now. His thoughts repeated one word, “No.”

Cain turned away, not sure where to go. He couldn’t go home.

Again he heard God’s voice, “Where is your brother Abel?”*

Confused by what he had just done, still angry at God, Cain yelled back, “I don’t know! Am I my brother’s keeper?”*

He hung his head. God doesn’t have to answer. I know. I know what I did. If Father and Mother were cast out of the garden for eating an apple, …

What happened was not what he expected.

“What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”*

Cain fell to his knees, knowing he was hearing from God the One Who Punishes, the One who sent his parents out of Eden. “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”*

But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.”*

After God marked him for protection and sent him off that day, Cain wandered aimlessly, with no idea where to go or what to do. As usual, he ignored the butterfly behind him and any of his thoughts.

When darkness fell, he found a cave and slept. The butterfly perched in a tree near the entrance. He feared the darkness of the cave more than he feared Cain, but would his thoughts reach the frightened man? You are not alone! You have no brother, no family. But God did not kill you. God is taking care of you.

When Cain woke up, the full realization of his situation struck him. He no longer had a brother, but he also no longer had a family. He was alone in the world. Completely alone. He shivered with fear. He sat in the cave for a long time with that lonely feeling building within him until he wanted to run out into the world screaming! He did not. He sat in the cave until the sun was at its highest.

Still, he was alive. Was God taking care of him like God took care of his parents after they ate the apple?

When he came out, the butterfly almost flew into him. The thought crossed his mind that he wasn’t completely alone. He shook his head. What company could a butterfly be?

Startled, he remembered the butterfly from his childhood. This couldn’t be the same one. They don’t live that long.

This dbutterfly headed in the direction the sun had come from. Did it tell him … foolish thought. Butterflies don’t talk. But something told Cain to follow it.

With no better plan, Cain followed.

After a while, they came upon a trail still muddy from yesterday’s rain. He looked at the prints in the trail in front of him and his behind. He looked at the butterfly as his mind told him, “These aren’t animal tracks. Long feet with five toes. Like mine. People!”

Shortly before nightfall, the butterfly led Cain into a small village. Children played between the tents. The men were returning from hunting. On flat rocks in the fire rings, the women were baking their breads from the wild grain they had gathered.

They all stared suspiciously. As the men turned towards him, he held out his hands to show that they were empty. The men greeted him cautiously, but they allowed him to enter the village.

One of the older women—Cain learned later she was the medicine woman—motioned him to sit outside her door. She glanced at the butterfly and smiled. A man sat down across from him and was soon joined by a younger woman. The rest of the people disappeared into their huts.

“Who are you and where are you from?” the woman asked.

“My name is Cain. I am from …” He had no idea what his land was called. He thought it was the only place with people. He motioned in the direction away from the setting sun. “I come in peace,” he added. “I mean no harm to anyone.”

The woman pointed at the butterfly hovering between them. “You followed the butterfly?”

“Yes, it led me here.”

“That’s a good sign.” She raised her hand. “That mark on your forehead?”

Cain considered the story he had been making up since he found the human tracks. He shook his head and looked down at the ground. “God put that mark on me because I killed my brother.”

The younger woman drew back. The man put his hand on his stone knife on his belt. The older woman frowned, but glanced again at the butterfly now resting on Cain’s shoulder.

“But God let you live?”

“Yes.”

“Are you a threat to us?”

He sighed. “No.”

“Someday you will tell us the story?”

Cain lifted his head. His eyes widened. “Yes, someday.”

The woman turned to her brother. “Take him into your tent tonight. Tomorrow we will help him create his own. We will teach him our ways.”

As time passed, Cain became one of the people of Nod. The young woman became his wife, and they named their son Enoch. The number of butterflies increased.

Because Cain was no longer successful at farming, he taught the people how to plant wheat, but he did not himself. He didn’t want to spread thorns and thistles. He showed them how to tend sheep.

He encouraged the people to build a town, not with tents, but with mud bricks that withstand the wind and storms. They would live in the town with their sheep and go out to tend their fields.

He was careful with his butterflies, from one generation to the next, tending the larvae his current butterfly laid and the cocoons that followed. The number of butterflies increased.

As time passed, Cain realized God had not forgotten him. He remembered the stories his parents told. When Adam and Eve left the garden, God provided them with skins for cover to protect them from the weather. God continued to care for them.

Even after what Cain did, God marked him with protection. Cain believed he also sent this butterfly to take him to the village where people took him in. The One Who Punished was also the Caretaker, the provider of butterflies.