Hiding From God

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:8-10

One summer my wife and I were working out in the yard, accompanied by our young kids who were exploring and playing while we worked. Later that day, my oldest child pulled a plant out that she thought was a weed. We let her know she couldn’t pull those out and moved on with our gardening efforts. A little while later, she disappeared. My heart sank as I searched the yard, the neighborhood and nearly called the police. Thankfully my wife called out and said she found her hiding in the basement closet. My daughter instinctively knew that hiding was a response to doing something wrong.

Adam and Eve responded in the same way. The irony was that God knew where they were hiding. So why did God ask the question, “Where are you?”.

The question posed at this moment caused Adam to wrestle with the weight of what had happened. God didn’t ask the question because He could not find them. They had gone from an unhindered relationship with God to one with a distinct relational barrier. That stain on their relationship moved them to seek out their covering, not God’s. So they hid, and God called out to them. As my daughter instinctively knew, this became an ongoing pattern in all mankind. Fight the urge to hide when sin creeps in. Return to God and seek Him out.

DO THIS TODAY: Ask God to reveal to you something that prevents you from relating to Him.