Contemplative Bible Reading

Genesis 3:8 (New Living Translation)

8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.

There is something about hiding that we people do. There are games we play as children where hiding something or someone or ourselves is good fun. Then there is the hiding that Adam and Eve did in this (hi)story.

If you, in this case God, cannot see something. It doesn’t exist. If I cover a dirty frying pan with a towel, it doesn’t exist and I don’t have to scrub it. If I cover a hole in the wall with a picture, it doesn’t exist and I don’t have to patch the hole. If I hide among the trees, God won’t see me and won’t ask me about what I was doing talking to that serpent.

When a two-year-old child hides a mess from a parent, it is obvious to the parent what is happening. When a person hides sin from God, well, are you kidding? It is obvious to God. What Adam and Eve had done was obvious to God. They, however, resorted to hiding anyway. Silly. Foolish.

The good news is, we don’t have to hide any longer. We are forgiven. We won’t have to scrub that messy frying pan because God has already cleaned it. We don’t have to patch that hole in the wall because God has already fixed it.

There is something amazing about not having to hide our mistakes. We don’t make as many mistakes. That doesn’t quite make sense, but that’s the way it is in our human condition. Thanks be to God.