Modern Eden

"So he said,'I hard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.'" -- Gen: 3:10.

God said, "Where are you?" Adam said, "...because..." He didn't answer God's question; he was rationalizing his behavior. He comes out from his hiding, facing God, knowing all too well what has happened, and must be feeling too guilty (to God) and shameful (feeling he must have toward his own "nakedness") to say, "Here I am, my Lord." I suspect we need to have a clean conscience to stand before God and just answer him. If we feel the need to explain ourself, it must at least involve guilt and shame. I think we do this when we interact with people, too. When we feel we can't just give an easy and straight forward answer to a simple question, there must be something going on internally that we are unaware of. "Where are you?" and "Why are you hiding?" are different questions, and when Adam heard the "where" question, what he really heard was "Why are you hiding?" Don't we do that oftentimes too?

"What time is the concert?" "I am almost ready!!"

"Is that a new dress?" "I did NOT use your money."

"Has our son eaten yet?" "Why do you think it's my duty to feed him?? You can do that too!!"

"Have you cleaned your room yet?" "Do you not know I have millions of other important things to do?"

And our answers help blind our understanding of ourselves. Out of touch with our own feelings.

God is a good therapist. "Who told you...?" oftentimes, we are the ones who tell us all sorts of things about ourselves. Some incorrect. I believe God wants to help us see when we have disobeyed him, but what we see is our imperfection and how bad we feel about ourselves (naked-- all exposed...) and that we should hide even from... God, instead of coming to Him and confess and seek redemption.

What a interesting dialogue. By calling it interesting, by no way am I discounting, diluting, minimizing the grave nature of Adam's sin, and certainly not being amused by this tragic event. I find it interesting because in a way, they understood each other very well. Or I should say, God sees Adam and his motivation so very well and how He was trying to help Adam come to Him so He can remedy his wrongdoing. And I see how Adam knew where God was going with His questions, but decided to get busy with defending himself. God wasted no time when he saw this, and confronted Adam with the real question; "Have you eaten...?" It was like saying to Adam, "I know you have eaten..." not a question really, and Adam blames Eve. So typical of humans. Instead of admitting and repenting for our own behaviors, we look for someone to blame.

Alas, what happened so long ago in the Garden, I see its rerun everyday in my counseling office, and even in myself. Have mercy on us, Lord...