Naked.
It's how you come into this world, and it's essentially how you go out of it as well.
Naked.
It's not a pleasant idea, or image, or reality. My guess is that even the site of the word naked conjures in you, the reader, such feelings that you would rather quickly dismiss, ignore & suppress than dwell on, contemplate & explore.
Feelings of disgust, of embarrassment, of shame.
Yes, shame might be the most common, & yet most underestimated of these feelings.
Why shame, what is there to be ashamed of when it comes to nakedness? God created us naked & yet without shame (Gen. 2:25), so why is it now that we so quickly associate being naked & being ashamed as one in the same?
Adam & Eve might have something to say about this if they weren't dead...and naked.
It seems to me that we've completely forgotten, or missed, or ignored this thing in the depths of all of our souls that remembers the time when there was shalom, peace, joy, freedom, where everything in all of creation worked in perfect rhythm, melody & harmony, like the greatest of all symphonies ever written or heard. We're told about it in Ecclesiastes, where we're told that God placed eternity in the hearts of men. That we remember that this life that we live now is not all there ever is, or ever was.
And so if we were to be honest with ourselves (which I won't pretend that we can be), we would discover that our soul aches for what Adam & Eve experienced briefly.
Nakedness without shame. In short, Shalom. Rhythm. Peace. Harmony. Perfection.
The odd thing is that while Adam & Eve, in those moments, were completely naked, they were also completely clothed. In the love & acceptance of their Creator, Father & Friend. They were given one commandment, don't eat of this one tree. I've given you everything else you will ever need, and it is all beyond just fulfilling a need, it is beautiful, tasteful, joyous, & free, and if you stay within this simple boundary you will always be joyous & free, and clothed in love & acceptance.
But infamously, we all know what happened, they didn't stay within the boundaries, they stepped outside of it to pursue the one thing that they couldn't have, & in that the rejected God's acceptance & love as being enough for them, & declared they would rather have God's things than God Himself, that they would rather be powerful & "all-knowing" then empowered & and truly know God, that they would rather pursue themselves, than God.
And so there they stood, naked. Stripped bare. Exposed. Full of shame, regret, fear, and animosity towards each other & God.
It's far too easy for us to sit back, analyze, dissect & examine Adam & Eve, and to totally miss the point that they so very perfectly represent you & I.
Now you're probably expecting me to start listing all the ways that we're horrible people who ignore God, chase idols & sin. Well you're wrong.
My goal here is for us to simply take a minute to realize that so much of our issue with ourselves is wrapped up in this idea of shame. My goal is for us to examine ourselves for a moment & be honest enough to aknowledge that there is a problem. That maybe why we work so hard & long, why we dive into entertainment & food head first and why we care so much about what other people think, is because we're trying desperately to make our fig leaves with which to cover our nakedness before God. To earn His love, to gain His acceptance, to find ourselves worthy, desirable & lovable once again. Because the soul remembers, & the heart knows that there is so much more, so very much more to life, to you, to this world then scratching & clawing to be clothed.
I'll end with this, & pick up with it in my next post. You can take a shower & brush your teeth, put on nice clothes & a pretty smile, and you can present yourself a certain way, but you don't have access to cleaning out the inside, and you can't clothe your soul.
But there is one who knew no sin, who became sin on your behalf that you might be clothed in the righteousness of God, to be found acceptable in His sight, cleansed of all shame. He is Jesus.
