Embarrassed and ashamed, they hid from their Maker. Their state of attire hadn’t changed. Their reason for being hadn’t changed. The fact that they’d been designed for relationship with God and each other hadn’t changed. But their awareness of their own (and each other’s) inadequacies, that had changed drastically. With an act of experimentation beyond a clear border God had placed, Adam and Eve broke the very fellowship with God that they were made for. And we’ve been following their path ever since.
The irony is that ever since, we’ve also all been seeking for someone to love us. As the song says, “We all want to be loved… tell me what’s wrong with that?” There’s nothing wrong with that – it’s what we were made for! What’s wrong is that we spend so much time hiding from the only one who possesses a love deep enough to satisfy our need to be loved.
We hide in our jobs, a general busy-ness that keeps us blinded to Love’s advances.
We hide in sex that is divorced from love, a counterfeit to the true intimacy God intended.
We hide in money, and power, and iPods, and weed, and church, and movies, and books, and any number of other things that can serve to numb us to the reality of God’s love for us.
Embarrassed and ashamed of how we’ve fallen short, we hide. And God still asks, “Where are you?”
Maybe it’s time to come out of hiding, faults and all, and let yourself be loved.
Thanks for that, Mike… Some of us have been hiding for too long.
Praying that you and I and so many others will walk and talk with God again without wanting to run and hide…
Why do we think it’s even possible to hide, anyway? He loves us far too deeply to not find us.