Original Sin

I don't pretend to be a Biblical scholar or theologian in training. Like most professed Christians, practically Duty #1 is to admit to being a sinner and base your life around seeking forgiveness, in words to God, and in action to the secular world. After some brief study, there is no use of the term "Original sin" in the Bible, in any translation of it. It is mostly a presumed status, that we are born into sin, by the belief that no one can be as perfect and sin-free as Jesus, and by the words of David in Psalm 51. This is where David is bearing his soul and begging forgiveness for committing adultery with Bathsheba.

In verse 5 he says (NIV): "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

Boom. There it is. Also referred to as "ancestral sin", people have picked up on those words from David (and other glancing references, like in Romans 5: 12-21) and run with it - evolving the term original sin.

Little Karissa, saintly as she looks, is a sinner? Right now? Jesus never says explicitly, and the idea originates from a man desperately wrought with guilt after committing one of the 7 ultimate No-No sins.

Eh ... something for someone with a few more theological stripes on his shoulder than I, a guy who tries to live as cleanly as possible, but who also can barely recite just a couple of key Bible verses.

Now, no slight against our beautiful son, so full of wonderment and curiostiy. His little troublemaking ventures are merely blog stories waiting to happen ... not full-blow sin! Right?

You see a cute little boy. We see the genesis of something that will have one of us shouting his name.

If there's ever a moment to wonder, it's now. How else does he learn to fake eating? Like when he's eating just fine, but then suddenly becomes consumed with getting down to go play with his Elmo or firetruck. We tell him to eat another bite of something, then he takes the fork of food just to the front of his open mouth ... clamps down on nothing ... then moves his jaw in a fake chew. He's never seen either one of us do it. Where does it come from?

What about the look he gives when he's been alone in a room way too long, with way too much quiet around. We turn around the corner and catch him standing all by himself with seemingly nothing amiss around him, except for a look on his face that says: Am I in trouble or not? Did you see that or not? Are you going to stay right there, or pursue this crime scene further? Can I just start repeating the word "poop" and divert your attention like an ice cream truck to a dog? Where does a 2-year-old learn deceit?

I don't need to see black kernels to know that burnt popcorn has been in the room, and I don't need to see broken glass, Crayola marks on the wall, or an open cabinet to know that unapproved tomfoolery has taken place with our boy.

Original sin, or ancestral sin? I don't think that even the Bible can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt - and the Bible already has a fair share of doubters. But I think a little boy named Kole Fletcher is proof enough.