God fashioned his first children—Adam and Eve—in his stunning image with the substance of his own light and made a beautiful garden as a blissful paradise for all of them to enjoy life together as full participants in the eternal loving dance of the Trinity. He gave them ‘all kinds of trees’ in the garden with fruit that was satisfying and he placed two trees in the middle of the garden: The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. His one instruction was for them not to eat from fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil tree.
When their choice was to believe the deceptions of the snake and they ate of the damaging fruit, something unthinkable happened. God’s first wonderfully created children no longer trusted him with a sweet innocence, but their assurance morphed into anxiety. Instead of looking forward to communing with the Lover of their souls, Adam and Eve hid from God in fear and shame!
When God called out, “Adam, where are you?”, he wasn’t asking a geographical question as if God were unaware of Adam’s whereabouts. No, he was already letting Adam know something of utmost importance: “I will always seek after you, my child. No matter what choices you have made, my kindness and my mercy will pursue you every day of your life. Though you no longer see me as I really am, my heart for you will never change. Nor does my accepting love for you ever change. I have set you as the affection of my heart. My mind about you is made up, my child.”
Adam didn’t know this anymore because his newly acquired man-made knowledge obscured him from eternal truth and so he replied to God’s question, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
God’s response is stunning: “Who told you that you were naked?”
I used to think we were supposed to follow the line of reasoning that followed to find the culprit: “It wasn’t me, it was Eve.” To which Eve replied, “It wasn’t me, it was the serpent.” But God wasn’t trying to get to the bottom of the story as to who was at fault. He was asking something much more profound.
“Son, daughter…I never fashioned you with fear and shame. These aren’t from me. Something has happened for you to suddenly see me and yourselves in a way that’s miles apart from the authenticity of how I brought you into this world as pure light, made in my image, enjoying face to face joy together.”
So I have a question from the depth of my being: “Who told you that you were naked?”
Hear the heart cry of the Father as he longingly beckons to them, “It wasn’t me!” He’s already imploring them, “Come back to me! I haven’t changed!”
The tragic outcome Adam and Eve experienced is they not only saw themselves as bad and shameful children, but they now projected their own brokenness, as it were, onto God’s face. They tarred God’s face with the brush of their own angst, which terrorized them and drove them deeper into a gross misinterpretation of the very heart of God.
To this day, we are still plagued with wrong thoughts that want to shame us, but God calls us out of the deceptions with the same question:
“Who told you?
Who told you that you weren’t enough? It wasn’t me!
Who told you that you’re insignificant, unimportant and that your life doesn’t matter? It wasn’t me!
Who told you that you were too this or not enough that? It wasn’t me!
Who told you that you were unlovable? It wasn’t me!
And it never would be me because my passionate heart for you never changes and my love is awakening within you and transforming you to embrace the beautifully authentic you I created in my glorious image.”
Although truly tragic, this creation story is far from over! In fact, it’s already been rewritten! The truest version is that God’s redemptive story was written before Adam and Eve’s choice to not trust God (see Revelation 13:8). Jesus is the fulfillment of the Tree of Life within us who beckons us back to the true heart of the Father and of the Trinity’s invitation into their eternal dance of love. We are being called back to the garden…back to our First Love…back to our authentic selves immersed in perfect Love that casts out all fear.
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