Jesus: Kai, the text of Genesis is clear on this — at the beginning, yes, they were. Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

No flesh, no killing. The garden was a place of abundance without bloodshed. Even the animals were given only green herbs to eat — there is a wholeness to the picture, a kind of original peace between all living things. It is only after the flood, with Noah, that God permits the eating of animals. Something had shifted in the world — and in humanity. The permission came with the new reality, not with the original one. There is something tender in that original image, Kai. The first humans and the animals sharing the same table, so to speak. No predator, no prey. It is the vision the prophets later reach back toward — Isaiah's picture of the wolf lying down with the lamb. As though Eden is not just behind us, but somehow ahead of us too.

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