Hello, dear sisters and brothers, dear to my heart.
It’s been a minute. I have been thinking about this post for a while, and I haven’t quite gotten my lasso around it. So, I thought I would just start typing and see what happens.
I was sitting on the beach this past Saturday morning, and thinking about our relationship with God. What is God’s desire for it? What happened to it? And as Vizzini advised, I went back to the beginning.
God creates Adam and Eve, and they have fellowship with God in the garden. It is normal. It is comfortable. They don’t know anything else than this. Easy, beautiful, fellowship with their Creator.
Now, we have a vague picture of the goings on at that time. There aren’t a lot of details. We know they were charged with tending and keeping the garden. We know that Adam was told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And we can surmise that either God or Adam told Eve this, as well, because when the serpent tells her to eat the apple, she says that they are not supposed to because they will die. But as we know, the serpent convinces her otherwise. That’s a whole ‘nother post, but mentioned here just for context.
But there’s a very clear verse, very specific, about Adam and Eve before they disobeyed God. It says:
Genesis 2: 25
“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
They were not ashamed. They didn’t even know what being ashamed was. They were with their God, their Creator and they knew that He loved them completely and cared for them unconditionally. They were secure and confident in their relationship with their all-loving God. They had no fear of being completely vulnerable with Him. Naked.
Now, what did eating the apple do? What did it change? We know that people would die from then on. Physically, they would come to an end. Maybe before that, people just kept living physically. I don’t know. But the worst part, to me, was something else. That something else brought tears to my eyes as I sat and looked out over the waves on Saturday.
They saw themselves and for the first time, they realized they were naked. Their nakedness brought on feelings of shame and embarrassment so they created coverings and covered up their nakedness. They covered up their vulnerability. They saw it as despicable.
They heard the voice of God as He was walking in the garden, “and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.”
This is heartbreaking. They hid from God. Why did they hide from their loving, kind, giving Creator? Let’s go on.
“And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
These may be the saddest verses in all the Bible. Their disobedience changed THEM. They could no longer be naked in His presence. They were afraid. They were ashamed. They were embarrassed. They could no longer be vulnerable. They were no longer free.
God did not change. Their perception of God changed. They now saw God as Someone to fear. Someone to be self-conscious around. They had become guarded in the presence of the One Who loved them best.
I can only imagine the heart of God, what it felt like. God knows all and He knew this would happen, but that did not take away the sting, the pain, the sadness.
Now, do not despair. God did not change in His perception of us. He has and will always love us. So much, that He came to earth as a human being, and gave His life for us, so that we could be unashamed, unafraid, and naked in God’s presence. He gave Himself for us even before Eve and Adam ate that apple. Revelations tells us that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world.
So, beloved, beautiful friends, let’s get naked before God! Become vulnerable. Don’t be ashamed or embarrassed or try to hide ANY part of yourself. He loves every bit of you and because of what Jesus did, we can have that relationship with God that was intended, free, open, full of love. No holding back! Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Let’s be crazy fools, and rush in naked before our God. Let’s be fearless.
16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (From Hebrews 4)
I love you all.
