Where Are You?

 February 16, 2021

According to Genesis 3:9-10, after Adam had sinned he hid himself from God, who had come into the garden looking for him. God called out, “Where are you?” It wasn’t because God didn’t know where Adam was; Adam didn’t know where he was. Adam understood the question. It wasn’t a matter of location, but of condition. He had alienated himself from the God with whom he had had intimate, face to face communion. 

“I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself,” was Adam’s response. The Voice that had instructed and empowered him was now a fountain of fear. The righteousness in which he had been clothed had been stripped away, and he not only saw the nakedness of his body, but also the nakedness of his soul. Notice the “I’s’ in this single sentence. Whereas before, his focus was on God and the tasks God had given him, now it was all about him: “I heard, I was afraid, I was naked, I hid myself;” I, I, I. 

God hasn’t lost us; he knows exactly where we are. We’ve lost ourselves, lost our way; we don’t know where we are, or who we are, so we hide, hoping God won’t notice our nakedness, our desperate depravity. But only when we answer that Voice and come out of hiding can we find redemption. Adam could have remained silent, hoping God would pass him by, but in spite of his fear, he answered. So can we. Only when I stop hiding, stop pretending things are OK, stop trying to patch together my own righteousness; only when I answer that Voice calling in my darkness, can I discover where I am and what I have become, and begin the journey home. And I only hear that Voice as I prayerfully engage the Scriptures. 

No wonder so many are still hiding. We are afraid, and don’t know where we are. God in his infinite mercy is looking for us, calling for us to see where we are so he can clothe us with his own righteousness and bring us home.