He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (ESV)

Did you ever play hide and seek when you were a kid, or as an adult with your kids or someone else’s? Did you get that anticipation when you were searching for a hiding place? When you heard the seeker counting down, did you furtively look for a better place or were you confident in your spot? Did your older brother or sister ever taunt you by saying that your place was terrible, so you switched your spot — only to be the first one found in your newly-acquired sanctum? (If your family was anything like mine, your older sibling took your original spot, and they won — the travesty of being the youngest!)

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When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked. For the first time since “birth”, they felt shame. They sewed clothes for themselves to cover this nakedness (and shame). Then, verse 8 says, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 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.’ Then, God responds, “Who told you that you were naked?”

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How often are we enticed to trade something good for something “better” because others told us the new thing would be superior?  

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You see, I think some people (maybe even you) view God as an old curmudgeon who doesn’t want us to have any fun. But do you see what happened when Adam and Eve listened to someone other than God? When they listened to the father of lies and took and ate of the ONLY tree in the entire garden of paradise God told them not to eat from, they felt shame. Their perfect world was immediately altered and made less. God knew this would be the outcome. See how much he loved them and wanted them to be in perfect union with him for all time? God put in guardrails for Adam and Eve so they could live in paradise with him for eternity because of his great love for them.

He still wants that for us, too. He still loves us and wants us to live in abundance and union with him, even in this fallen and broken world. But we so often listen to others about what would be better, make us happier, more powerful, more successful — and it’s all lies. The father of lies is still at work drawing the people of God away from him. He’s still at work throwing obstacles at us to keep us from the abundant life God wants for us.  

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We trade the abundant, joy-filled Kingdom life for “You do you, boo.” For, “If it feels good, just do it,” “What I do in the privacy of my home is none of your business,” or “I am not hurting anyone.” And man, are we masters at convincing ourselves that these lies are true. We trade our perfect sanctum with Christ for a cheap counterfeit that only brings shame and death.  

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Who are you listening to when it comes to how you live? Are you listening to the counterfeit lies of the enemy through the voice of the world, or are you listening to the peace and joy-filled voice of God who brings light and freedom?

Today, I'm praying over you what Paul spoke to the church of Ephesus in Ephesians 3:17-19: “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” In Jesus’ name ~ AMEN!