Where Have You Gone?

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”  And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”  Genesis 3:9-10  ESV

Adam didn’t give the right answer when God asked him where he was.  Adam said, “I hid because I was naked.”  Technically, that wasn’t true.  He should have said, “I hid because I disobeyed you.”   Defensiveness was Adam’s default, and by extension, it is also mine.

There have been periods when I avoided God.  I quenched His voice when I could sense Him reaching out to me.  I kept the noise level high to drown out the wooing.  The more time went by, the harder it became to turn myself around.  Excuses were thin when I finally knelt before my Father.  “I was busy” didn’t cut it, and I knew it.  Like Adam, I tried to hide the real issue, but I also knew that the fracture in our relationship would never be right unless I told the truth of my detour. 

It’s a reminder that, sooner or later, every person who hides from God will stand before Him.  All will encounter Him as their Judge or as their Savior.   Those who ran from His presence because they were disobedient children will mourn their choices, and mostly, what they missed from being near perfect Love.  They will regret all the small things they hid behind, the exchanges they made to replace time with Him.  Those who rejected Him because they were enemies of the cross will also mourn their choices.  Like the rich man in Hades, they will see the expanse of an eternity before them that offers no second chances.

I can be consumed today with just a sideways glance of a mere acquaintance.  It will bug me for hours on end.  I might even obsess about it.  But, am I equally consumed when I sense that things between God and me aren’t right?  Of all relationships, this should disturb me most of all. 

Sometimes, I haven’t known what was wrong but when I asked, You showed me.  Thank you for all the times You came looking for me..  Amen