Using a trigger word to get people to read my blog? You call it cheap, I call it effective.
Anyway. I cried today. I cried because I realized that I have been hiding my nakedness from God for a while now. And because it doesn’t work. Because God is God.
So today I was reading Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve screwed it all up. And I thought, “Dang, Adam and Eve and I would probably get along because we are all notorious for screwing things up!” But I digress.
Prior to the screwing things up part, Adam and Eve are naked and stuff. And they’ve always been this way, and it’s totally chill! In fact, it’s perfect! They are fully themselves, nothing more, right beside God, with God, in complete vulnerability.
And then they screw it all up. We all know it well.
But, I find it interesting that, when Adam and Eve sinned, the very first thing that they noticed was that they were naked. The nakedness always seemed like such an insignificant and random part of the story to me. The perfect Garden of Eden was corrupted in that moment. The earth probably shook and the sky probably darkened or something, but the first thing that Adam noticed was that he was naked.
Being naked is all fun and games until you believe that you have something to hide. Suddenly, your nakedness is all that you can think of. Suddenly, your life’s objective is to run as far as possible from God because you know that He is the one Person that can see straight through you.
So, Adam is hiding, and of course, God finds him and asks for an explanation. Adam responds, “I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Notice that Adam isn’t afraid because he sinned, but because he sinned and he was naked.
Okay now pause. If you hadn’t read this story 2,329 times, what would you expect God’s response to be? Really?
If I were God, it would probably be something along the lines of: “I gave you everything, Adam, and you ruined it. Shame on you,” or, “I know everything Adam, how dare you hide from your Creator?” or something about how ungrateful his action was.
However, God responds with a gentle and concerned question: “Who told you you were naked?”
When I read that, I had to stop and ask myself that same question.
It’s like God is saying, “Who told you to be ashamed?” “Who told you that you aren’t beautiful and perfect?” “Who told you that you needed to hide from me because you messed up?” His eyes are full of grace and sorrow.
(And then, of course, the consequence of Adam’s sin has to ensue. And yes, even that was loving.)
But I want to talk about the fact that on this earth, we get pretty good at hiding our crap, even from ourselves. But God is the One whom we can never hide from. Which sounds like a “duh” but how often we forget that!
He knows us, inside and out, and He loves us, inside and out.
And one day, we will, each one of us, stand before the exact same God that Adam did and we will be completely naked. No one will be there to back us up. We will not be able to ride on the fact that we hosted Bible studies and attended church and went to a Christian conference or wrote a blog about Jesus. It’s just you and Him. He will look at you with penetrating eyes and you will both know that He knows all about you. Further, He knows you. The real one; the naked one.
And He will call you righteous. And you will say, “Why, God?” And He will say, “Because I said so.”
-Avery
*slightly irrelevant side note: I need $16,000 to fund the journey that God has called me to. If anyone is interested in sharin’ some provision, donate at averypratho.theworldrace.org. Love y’all.
