Where are you?

This is the year 2020...a year of perfect sight. A year when we will see all we need to see with perfect clarity. A year when our vision will need no correction. Uh...probably not. 

However that is what I strive for. To see God more clearly. For God to be SEEN more clearly in me. 2020 seems like a good year for that to take place. I begin the New Year as I begin every New Year, every new day. Reading my Bible. 

I always read the Bible cover to cover each year. To be sure I am on track I follow a read the Bible in a year plan. I change up which plan I use each year, but I have done this for as long as I can remember since becoming a Christian 33 years ago. What is most astonishing is that each year, it is a fresh book, with new insights, new lessons, new truths I newly apply. I don’t know how God does that.

This year, I started back at Genesis a few days ago. I had never taken serious note of the first question God is recorded asking of any human. Nor had I contemplated the profound and far-reaching implications of that question.

Adam and Eve had sinned, eating of the fruit that God had strictly forbidden. They instantly felt shame, covered their nakedness, and hid from God.  God is walking in the Garden of Eden, and this startling discussion begins.

“Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:9‬ ‭

Where are you? This is God speaking. God knows everything. He knows exactly where Adam is. He knows where the furthest star in the furthest galaxy is since He placed it there. Why would He ask Adam, “Where are you?”

The more I pondered this, the more convicted I became that this was the pivotal question for me this New Year. Maybe the pivotal question to ALL of us. Where are we? Are we like Adam, hiding from God trying to cover a sin He obviously knows all about? Are we dressing ourselves in our cleverly designed clothes to try to present ourselves in a way that passes as decent, as acceptable...when the reality is we are covering the naked horror of transgression against our Creator?

Where are you? God ALWAYS has a reason for everything He does or says. He asked that question for a purpose, but I don’t believe it was because He was unaware of Adam’s hiding place. I think it is an opportunity for Adam to come clean. To confess. To repent. To turn in humble sorrow for his sin before the Lord and lay it at His feet, longing for restoration. 

But that is not what Adam does. Instead, he absolves himself of all responsibility or culpability for his sin, and blames God and Eve.

“The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:12‬ ‭

No confession, no repentance, no humble sorrow, no longing for restoration. A sniveling attempt to wiggle out of the truth of what he has done.

I have NEVER done that.  (Sarcasm alert for the careless reader.) 

Have you? 

I think there is a second reason God asks that question. Not because God doesn’t know where Adam is, but because Adam doesn't know. Adam seems oblivious to the magnitude of what he is doing. Hiding from God??? He KNOWS who God is...he should also know he is as capable of hiding from God as a three-toed sloth is of winning the Boston Marathon. And this is the terrifying nature of sin. We lose perspective of who God is and where we are in relationship to Him.

I had the privilege of standing on the sidewalks of the abortion center yesterday, still open the day before this new year. I spoke over the microphone to the women streaming into the abortion center to kill their unborn sons and daughters. This is the question I asked them. 

Where are you? 

It is the question I ask myself this new year as well. It is a very important question.

Where are you? Where are you in relationship to God? Are you hiding something from Him? He sees you. He sees whatever you are trying to shield from His sight. And He offers a chance at redemption. We will fail at times, as Adam did. We will sin, and then try to rationalize why we did. But God provides a way back to Him. In His perfect justice, He requires that there be a penalty for transgression. That penalty must be paid, or God is not JUST. Banned from God’s presence for eternity because of our sin, all is not lost. He loves us and doesn't want us cast from His presence forever. The Bible says God desires that none should perish, but that All should come to repentance. God requires that we confess our sins and turn from the path of destruction, And rather than us bearing the staggering penalty for sin, Jesus bears it for us in His atoning sacrificial death on the cross. 

He gives us another chance when He asks, “Where are you?” If we are submitting our lives to Jesus, turning from our sin, accepting what He has done on our behalf, humbly in faith trusting Him despite all the sin and shame of who we have been, He tells us exactly where we are. We are at the foot of the cross with our eyes on Him. We are safe. He is with us, and we are with Him.

That is my prayer for you in this Happy New Year.