Genesis 3:8-10 “When they heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God them called to the man and asked him, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.’”
I heard you, God, but I was afraid, so I hid myself. This is the sad result of the Fall, and it remains our fallen tendency to this day. So much of sin and human misery flows precisely from this response to God. Though we may hear his voice, perhaps through the pricking of our conscience, or the word of one we know we should listen to, we recoil in fear and attempt to hide ourselves.
Though we cannot ever truly hide from God, we can try, at least, to hide God from our view. We lose ourselves in addiction, sin, restless activity, wealth, or the prestige that comes from this world, ignoring anything that might be trying to break through to bring us back. We fear what seeing God and being seen by God could cost us. What will I have to give up? How will I have to change my life? There is a fearful recognition that I will no longer be able to be lord of myself.
So, we strive to ignore God and in doing so we remain cut off from the very thing we were made for, the one and only source of peace that satisfies all our longings. Consequently, the world is in shambles. In our unhappiness we fight among ourselves, our fear compels us to acts of greed, gluttony, and lust to seek to satisfy our need for the One from whom we hide. Our relationships with one another are broken as is our relationship with this earth that is meant to be our home. We ravish the earth, expecting it to provide for us in a way that only God can, not trusting in his Fatherly abundance to provide for us.
We demand of one another the love, understanding, and fullness of relationship that can only truly be found in the God who made us. In the inevitable disappointment that ensues we lash out in anger, doing violence to one another, breaking relationships, and driving ourselves to hide away further still. This is the bleak reality of sin, the darkness of life apart from God.
But God does not leave us in such darkness. For behold, “a light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1: 5) Jesus is the Dawn of our salvation, and in him our redemption, the redemption of the whole fallen order, draws near. When we leave our hiding, and turn to Him, that light shines upon us and replace our shame and fear with perfect love and peace.
Prose for the sake of Poetry 