In the very beginning, in that perfect garden God made for His family, there was no pain, stress, problems, or fear. (Laundry didn’t exist either, by the way.) The world God had made was good, and Adam and Eve only knew that which came with the presence of a perfectly holy God.
If you open your Bible or go to a Bible app and begin reading Genesis 1–3, you’ll see how everything shifted for Adam and Eve, and consequently, for us too, when Eve stepped over the boundary God had put in place to keep her safe.
Genesis 3:7 says when Adam and Eve ate the fruit, everything changed:
At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. — NLT
We remember what happens next. They hid.
Afraid of what their nakedness meant, they tried to hide among the trees. Then God called out to them, “Where are you?” (v. 9 NLT). Adam answered, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked” (v. 10 NLT).
I love the Lord’s response to the first recorded fear in history because it already shows how Love Himself covers fear and shame. God had a conversation with Adam and Eve, and then Genesis 3:21 says,
The Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. — NLT
He covered them.
I suppose it would be easy for us to believe that Adam and Eve hid and attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves because they felt shame for their exposed skin. That makes sense to us today because when we think of nakedness, we think of the clothes that cover our bodies. But I believe Adam and Eve covered themselves because they realized something that had been there before had gone missing.
When God made Adam and Eve, they were clothed in the righteousness of God’s presence. They were covered by His goodness. And I believe that the instant they sinned and separation came between them and God, they looked down and realized the covering of His peace, protection, love, and safety no longer surrounded them. I’m not sure there would be a reason for Adam and Eve to be embarrassed about their bodies, but I can understand why they would want to conceal their missing peace.
So they did their best to cover themselves; but the Lord didn’t allow them to keep their own covering. Instead, He covered them. He killed innocent animals as a result of their sin and made clothing for them. This covering wasn’t a replacement for His presence or His righteousness, but it was the first evidence that only God can cover our hearts. When Jesus died for us, He offered a permanent covering. Isaiah 61:10 says,
For He has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. — NLT
Why am I talking about clothing? Because I wonder: Do we ever try to conceal that we, too, look down and feel shameful about our lack of peace? Do we ever try to cover up that we are missing the confidence of His presence? Do we try to stitch together our security or rest in our own ways by our own methods, attempting to replace with our abilities what only God can provide by His Spirit?
- Listen, we don’t have to conceal that we’re not okay. We don’t have to pretend we don’t need Him or the help of the people He sends to us.
He knows we need Him. It’s why He willingly gave His life as an innocent sacrifice so our sin could be eternally covered by His offering and our shame could be replaced with His grace.
The Lord knows exactly what it means for sin to have brought brokenness into the world and our bodies. He is aware that the bodies He designed to know only His presence now know stress and fear. He warned Eve of what would happen when He told her not to eat the fruit. So of course He’s not surprised that we feel overwhelmed at times. I want to be very clear. God is not disappointed that you need Him. He doesn’t want you to try to stitch together some makeshift covering of rest when He has already given His life to provide you with an eternal covering of peace.
We don’t need to hide our missing peace from Him.
So I’ll ask you... How are you really feeling? What are your heart, mind, and body trying to tell you?
Excerpted with permission from Healing Rest by Becky Thompson, copyright Rebecca F. Thompson.
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Your Turn
Has your peace gone missing? How are you feeling? We don’t have to be ashamed of our lack of peace. Without Jesus, we can’t have peace! So, let’s tell Him today what’s going on in our hearts. ~ Devotionals Daily