Hiding...

For any of you reading who follow Jesus, I would be interested to hear your response to this. When you do something stupid that you know is sinful, in that moment what is normally the last thing you want to do? I think for most people, the hardest thing to do after recognizing their own shortcomings is to come to God and ask for forgiveness. The classic example of course is Adam and Eve hiding in the garden immediately after they disobey God and chomp on the very fruit they were told not to snack on. Why do we tend to hide after sin? There are probably several reasons, but I think one of the biggest is that to be in relationship with God is to come face to face with the definition of holiness, and it is hard to be in open, vulnerable communication with holiness when still feeling the onerous shame of sin. It is simply humiliating. I believe this is also why it is so hard for so many to come to Jesus in the first place. To come to Christ is to recognize your own broken, sinful, pitiful state and to admit the need for help, transformation, and salvation. The irony is that in our state of weakness Jesus is the One we want to hide from the most, and yet is the only One who can ever take sin and shame from us. In fact, He already has on the cross, we just need to accept that and come crawling back to Him.