Courage and Confidence: 5-Days to Unbox the Woman God Created You to BeSýnishorn

The fall of man interrupted the construct and the expression of our created self. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, they hid and covered their nakedness (Genesis 3:6-8). Before this, there was never any shame or questioning of their uncovered form. It was beautiful. It was good. The introduction of sin, however, brought with it an identity crisis. Adam and Eve’s disobedience (sin) separated them from God, the source and standard of their goodness.

The separation left them feeling vulnerable and exposed, and, under this perceived pressure, they scrambled to try to regain that blissful goodness on their own. Adam and Eve proceed to make coverings for themselves by sewing together fig leaves from their surroundings. This clearly was not good enough to hide their newly developed fears and insecurities. We know this because when God comes looking for them, He finds them hiding.

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.”

GENESIS 3:8-10

This Scripture stirs a few thoughts for me:

1. No hiding place is so distant or fortified that we cannot hear the Lord.

2. We can use the very things God gave us as hiding places.

3. When God calls us out of hiding, it causes us to address what drove us to that place, admit the effect it had on us, and confess that we are not where we are supposed to be.

God allowed Adam to have his own unboxing experience in the Garden. The Godlike creatures who had always shared in fellowship with God and each other, just as they were, were experiencing the compounding consequences of sin. They went from the uninhibited freedom of living from their created selves to feeling like they could not stand in the presence of God (or anyone else, for that matter) because, on their own, they were no longer “good enough.”

The effects of the Fall on our identity may look different for us than it did for Adam and Eve, but the outcome is still the same: hiding. Adam and Eve hid among the trees of the Garden. And you, my sister, where have you been hiding? What are your trees and reeds?

REMEMBER: No hiding place is so distant or fortified that you cannot hear the Lord. I would like you to pause and consider how God has been speaking to you. What has He been saying about your identity?