Sermon Devotional: What do fearful children do?

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-12 (ESV)


When children have wandered away and gotten lost in their own desires there is often an attempted cover-up. Adam and Eve tried to cover their disobedience, their nakedness, their shame. The kinds of coverings were many. Discovering that “they were naked” (3:7), they covered themselves with fig leaves. When they heard “the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” Adam and Eve covered themselves by hiding “among the trees of the garden” (3:8). When their disobedience was called out, Adam covered himself by blaming “The woman whom you gave to be with me” (3:12) and Eve covered her disobedience by blaming, “The serpent” who deceived her (3:13).

The Lord’s first children in Eden’s garden are prototypes of people, be they children or adults, who have gotten lost through the ages. Disobedience brings fear of consequences. Disobedience breaks fellowship. Disobedience burdens the child with an unbearable weight of guilt.

Fear of disapproval, dread of a verbal tongue-lashing or of an angry parent’s backhand are consequences that compel a child to hide. When love is conditioned upon behavior and when a child’s confidence of belonging may be withdrawn because of failure to meet an imposed standard, a child will always seek to deflect and deny. A burden of guilt may be disguised as withdrawal, as anger and tantrums, or in attempts to find another’s behavior that is more egregious than my own. There is nothing new under the sun! We know these stories in our own lives and in the lives of those we love.

But the most fundamental difficulty of these narratives is made clear back in the Garden. “But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (3:9). If the above narratives describe your own experiences, then you may hear the Lord’s question as being asked in a demanding, condemning tone. However, the God who is love (1Jo 4:16) asks the question already knowing what has happened, how his first fearful children are feeling and what will be required to respond to the consequences that flow from the serpent’s lies and Adam and Eve’s choices. These first children, and the world they lived in, were created for love and relationship. The God who made them will not break his promises.

The LORD God is the one who “keeps you as the apple of His eye” and who hides you “in the shadow of His wings” (Ps 17:8). He tells you, “Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you” (Gen 28:15).

He declares, “You are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God” (Eze 34:31). “But now—even now—this is what the LORD says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. . . For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Is 43:1-3).

Truly, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty” (Ps 91:1), because nothing “in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:39).

Consider—
╬   Telling one another our Pilgrimage stories is an essential part of this journey. One pilgrim still remembers his fear after he had a fender bender that left a small dent in the bumper of his dad’s car. He tried and failed to fix the dent himself. He never confessed and his father never said a word about it. Fifty-five years later, he can still feel the relief he experienced when his dad sold the car.  Are you Godspeed-ing? Tell your stories to one another.

╬   When have you tried to hide a choice that had big consequences? The Lord already knows and is waiting for you to come to him. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Mt 11:28-30).

╬   Abba Father, we confess that we still try to hide from your gaze. Thank you that you know us. You love us still. And you readily receive your lost children back into fellowship when we come in Jesus name. Thanks be to God.  Amen.