Saturday, May 22

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.
—Genesis 3:8

We know ourselves all too well. We are aware of our imperfections, our mistakes, our failures, our less-than-holy life choices. Intellectually, we know that everything we have thought or done is known fully by God, and yet, we still try to hide from the all-seeing eye—even the all-loving heart of God.

In the Genesis account, the man and his wife want to avoid the Holy One. They know they have not lived into what they were created to be. They feel embarrassed, vulnerable and fearful. In their flawed thinking, they believe that if they hide themselves from God, their lack of perfection will somehow no longer exist.

Perhaps, it wasn't the Holy One they were trying to hide from as much as they were trying to hide from themselves. They wanted to avoid facing the truths and untruths in their lives that burned like the sun on new skin. They felt conspicuous and bare and wanted to cover their nakedness by becoming small among the trees.

When you find yourself trying to become small among the trees, choose to courageously stare at your soul with all of its deficiencies. In that brave action you will find heaven reaching out to cover your nakedness with the love you find so hard to extend to yourself.

O God, let me cast away my fig leaves and stand boldly in your presence where your love can shelter and protect me.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2004.