“And he (Adam) said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.“ Genesis 3:7
In the very beginning, Yehovah gave Adam and Eve freedom to eat of every tree in the Garden of Eden, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But they disobeyed and, as a result, we witness what we now term as “the fall.” The immediate effect we witness is that they became aware of their nakedness; they lacked something, namely clothing to cover their bodies. Obviously, Yehovah had seen them naked; He made them that way in the first place. Until they sinned, they had not even noticed they had no clothes on – but when they disobeyed Yehovah’s command, they became both aware and embarrassed. Their response was to sew together leaves to cover themselves and to hide from Yehovah. Whether that was because they were embarrassed that He would see them uncovered or because they realised that when He did so, He would know they had sinned we do not know, but hide they did. Ever since then every person ever born, apart from Yeshua, has tried to hide and to cover up their sin, from Yehovah and from others, ashamed that He, and they, will see their nakedness and guilt. People will go to extraordinary lengths to ignore, deny and plead not-guilty to their short-comings and failure – as if by doing so, they will avoid the consequences. Genesis 3 tells us that after Adam and Eve had sinned, Yehovah came walking in the garden in the cool of the day, no doubt to meet and fellowship with them. But He discovered them hiding because of guilt and shame. Yehovah called out, “Where art thou?” not because He did not know, but because He was giving them the chance to admit, as Adam did, “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.“ The first step in restoration of our relationship and fellowship with Yehovah is to recognise and confess that we have sinned and fallen short of His design and purpose for our lives. If today, you recognise that is you, do not hide from Yehovah. Come into the open before Him. Confess your need for His forgiveness and trust that He will clothe you in His righteousness.