Origins: The Beginning (Genesis 1–11)Sample

By Danny Saavedra

“Then the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He replied, ‘I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.’” Genesis 3:9–10 (NLT)

When I was a kid living in a lower income area of West Miami, I loved playing basketball, football, and especially baseball in my backyard. But the thing with playing actual baseball in your yard is that it can get a little expensive. How so? Broken windows! I will never forget the feeling of breaking a window and then running to my room in terror, waiting for my dad to come a-knockin’. 

In the years since my window-breaking baseball days, I have found that my instinct to immediately run and hide in fear is pretty much a universal thing with humans. When we do something wrong, we try to hide it for fear of what will happen if/when we’re discovered. I see it now in my kids, I see it with the students/young adults I mentor, I see it in celebrities and athletes, I see it in myself and other adults, and I see it with Adam and Eve here in Genesis 3. 

When the Lord asked, “Where are you?” Adam, who we know hid the second he heard God coming, responded just like my son does when he does something he shouldn’t and just like I did when I broke the window, “I heard you . . . so I hid.” Essentially he—and we—are saying: “I didn’t want to face the consequences for my actions, I wanted to try to avoid them, to avoid feeling the shame and having to stand before you knowing what I’ve done.”

Now, consider this: Adam confesses his nakedness to God, which he knew was physically evident, but fails to make any mention of his sin. He omitted that part, the thing he wished to keep hidden. Why? Because more than his nakedness, it was his sin that made him feel shame, not his lack of clothing.

How often do you find yourself in the same place as Adam? How often do you say “I’m sorry for what I did . . . but here’s why I did it”? If I can be so blunt: When we do this, we are showing neither true humility nor penitence. We are justifying why the wrong we did was actually not wrong. 

My friends, let us learn from Adam; let us learn from our past. Let’s approach our mistakes with humility and remorse. Let’s own up to our transgressions and seek restoration, not justification or validation for the wrong we’ve done.

DIG: Have you ever felt the need to hide yourself from God? To avoid Him for fear of Him seeing what you’d done or who you were becoming?

DISCOVER: Have you ever felt the Lord calling out, “Where are you?” What did you do in that moment? How did you respond?

DO: Today, examine where you are. Is there any area of your life where you’re hiding from the Lord? He wants to extend His mercy over that area. Bare your soul before Him, confess, and receive His grace!