ADAM AND EVE ENJOYED life without knowledge of their nakedness until they ate the fruit of the only forbidden tree in their paradise. And then they covered themselves. When God found them, Adam explained that it was his own nakedness that made him afraid and caused him to hide from God.
But wait a minute.
Adam wasn’t naked when he sheepishly had this conversation with God. He was wearing a loincloth he made out of fig leaves.
Is this not the most telling story of human nature?
Unencumbered by hundreds of laws we try to obey, Adam and Eve could not obey the only law they were given. With the whole world given to them, they could not resist the temptation to step outside God’s boundary.
And upon their failure, whether by deception (Eve), or blatant willingness (Adam), it was not Adam’s disobedience that made him afraid.
It was his nakedness.
And does it not speak of human nature to see that Adam failed to take responsibility for his actions and simply ask forgiveness?
The only thing he could come up with in his defense was to blame God for giving him a wife and then for added measure, he threw Eve under the bus for not being perfect.
“The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”—Adam (Genesis 3:12)
The vulnerability of nakedness is frightening.
We demand our freedom and our right to have whatever it is that we desire and then we blame God and others when we end up in the ditch.
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”—Genesis 3:13
It is not that we want to blame God and others—we know how it feels to be falsely accused—but the fear of shame and condemnation leaves us no choice.
So, we lie, cheat, steal, murder, stutter step, and wear ourselves out hiding the truth. But even as we’re sewing new fig leaves when the old ones show signs of exposure, we cannot escape the guilt we feel inside.
Shame always leads us into the darkness, and for a season we enjoy the separation from God and the people who matter and we think it real freedom. But, as we find ourselves changing, from giving to taking, from abundance to scarcity, from warm and outgoing to cold and withdrawn, we look for ways to numb the pain of our isolation.
Finally, the fear of withdrawal becomes greater than the fear of exposure.
We want off the road we’re on, but we cannot find the way. We never meant for this to happen, but it did happen and now our best thinking says we have one of two choices: Rinse and repeat or cry out for help.
In our minds, either way leads to death.
Nakedness is the epitome of vulnerability, but nakedness is the state of being we most desire.
We feel most loved, respected, significant and secure when we are accepted for who we are and who we are not. It is Shame that tells us we must hide when we eat of the forbidden fruit, whatever that fruit may be.
Shame tells us we cannot be forgiven, or worse, that we do not need forgiveness. But God tells us otherwise.
It is in your nakedness that you are vulnerable. Without mask, cover or weapon, you can and will be hurt. However, it is only when you are willing to return to your nakedness and stand in the truth of your humanness, fragility, and above all else, your need for help outside yourself; it is here that you can find what you’re really after.
Sometimes it takes the trip through the darkness to reach that place we never knew existed; where we find love we did not earn or deserve. This is intimacy—Into Me You See—the place where life really occurs, where life is really worth living.
2 Corinthians 12:9,1 John 1:9,Psalm 103:8-12, 1 John 2:1, John 3:16-17
As always, it is my intent and hope that my words may encourage you wherever you are in your journey.
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If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.–Jesus (Mark 4:23)
