Messing with Ourselves and God

Yesterday Dottie Oleson’s devotional emphasized how ‘running from God’ is tied in scripture to the disintegration of the self. Today we take that reflection deeper with the oldest picture of these dynamics - the Garden of Eden scene.

Before the scene below unfolds, Adam and Eve are said to be naked and without shame (Genesis 2:25). It’s a picture of full integration - being who they are supposed to be, unafraid, vulnerable, and just their plain selves. But then Adam and Eve have just eaten the forbidden fruit - a great picture of intentionally doing what we know will disconnect us from our truest selves and from God.

Notice how shame invades their relationship to their own bodies and selves AND how it disconnects them from God. It’s not one or the other - it’s all tied up together.

As you read this passage today, sit with it. What word or phrase or image sticks with you the most? Notice what reactions it causes in you - perhaps something stirs in your body or your mind or your heart. Pay attention to that. Why is it? Where do you connect with it? What might the Spirit be saying to you?

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, 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?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” - Genesis 3:7-10