i was reading genesis three today and the part where adam and eve hide from God "because they were naked" stuck out at me. I got to thinking about how sin separates us from God. We hear a lot about how God cannot remain near sin, thus his people must be made holy. But if you read the story God didn't withdraw from man, man withdrew from God.
I know when I do something I know I shouldn't that affects someone else, when I do something that hurts another, the last thing I want to do is talk to them. My reaction is the same as Adam and Eve's, to hide. I experience a sensation within me, a sinking in my stomach, a feeling that it would be the worst thing in the world to face that person with my dirty hands, to expose my nakedness. I do not want to be seen as I am, sinful, full of mistake and hurt. I want to hide.
It is by the grace of God that we can learn to approach with humility and receive the forgiveness he offers. The wonder and joy is found in realizing that God does not think less of me for my sin. The shame that I feel does not come from him. It is that shame that drives us apart. God comes exposing our sin with truth so that he can wash away the shame with forgiveness and restore the relationship.
Adam and Eve were banished from the garden. Childbearing and the ground were cursed because of them. There were direct consequences of what they did. But God didn't leave them. He made them clothes so they would not continually feel exposed. In chapter four after Cain killed Abel, it is said that he "left the Lord's presence." He didn't just leave his family and fields, he left God's presence. God was still with them. He didn't leave after sin entered the world. He stuck around to work things out.
He is here now. Forgiving my sin, wiping away my shame, covering my nakedness, staying with me to bring me to the day our relationship can be as glorious and pure as it once was with Adam and Eve in the garden.
11.13.2007
oh how we hide
11.10.2007
here and there
i must confess i'm finding this disciplines thing difficult. i guess that's the reason it's called a discipline. i like to excuse myself by thinking it's hard to get back into something after not doing it for a few years, but who am i kidding. i just have to stop the talk and start at some point.
i've read some bits in genesis here and there. i'm at about chapter three. i find myself getting side-tracked a bit with nit-picky bits. i grew up loving the whole creation/evolution controversy, so when i read the beginning of genesis much of it has ties in those kinds of conversations for me. additionally, i find myself getting distracted with wierd questions like, how do we know that the snake in the garden was satan? how do we know it wasn't just a snake? maybe there's some reference elsewhere i need to find. but really, what difference does it make? the story isn't about the snake.
personally, i stopped caring whether genesis one and two are referring to short days or long days or evolution or whatever. i think that discussion misses the point. i prefer to read genesis one as poetry now. i think it is a beautiful poem. it gives us our origin. it frames our existence in a world that has meaning and purpose and beauty. and it does that regardless of what method was employed in creating.
i love the stories in genesis. i'm looking forward to reading them again. they are so rich, but i love them mostly because the are the stories about the beginnings of our faith. they are stories about some of God's actions in beginning the process of healing and restoration and how people cooperated or didn't in that process. these are the stories that framed an understanding of God for all the authors of the rest of the scriptures. the judges and kings and prophets and apostles, jesus himself, were all influenced directly by the stories found in genesis. stories of faith, stories of failure. stories of heartache and trust and deliverance. stories that teach us that God is a provider, that God will judge evil, that God is faithful, that God is passionate, that God is creative, and so many other things.
genesis. beginnings. maybe this week i will continue to work on beginning this habit of reading and journaling.
10.31.2007
genesis 1
beginnings are so full of hope, latent potential waiting in the wings. that is what i feel reading the first chapter of genesis. hope, excitement for the future, dreams for what can be all jump at me from the poetry that is genesis 1. six times God looks at his creation and says it is good. affirmation is repeated throughout the poem. "Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!"
as the hope found in those verses jumped at me i began to ponder how in just two chapters the story would take a tragic turn. those hopes would be crushed. God's very good would be smeared with rebellion and blood. i thought about how this is the way life is for us: so often our hopes and dreams come falling down around us in the reality of the everyday crush. there is often not much that seems "very good."
and yet, this is our beginning. we have been lovingly made by a creator and called "very good." his smile frames our existence and his hopes for us dance in our dreams. we can remember where we have come from, how this story began, and hope can be restored through Christ's presence in our present. this story had a very good beginning. the middle has been sullied, but the story does not end with the middle. there is a climax leading to and ending more glorious than the beginning. redemptive time will end and all will be made new.
until then i will let my looking back inform my looking forward and find the hope that leads me to let Christ unleash that latent potential placed in me at the beginning for my life now.
