The Garden

The other day, I was reading in Genesis about the creation and fall of mankind. I can't even begin to wonder the number of times I've read these verses, heard them in church, or sang about them in a song, but this time was different. One verse . . . ONE VERSE . . . knocked me back in my seat and made me sit there and think.

"The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." Genesis 3:21

Now, this verse by itself, isn't that shocking, and normally it wouldn't catch someone's eye. But this verse, when read in its proper context, is the essence of God's nature and His unwavering persistence. If we back up just seven verses, we find the true magnitude of this verse. Verses 3:14-19 immediately follow Adam & Eve eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. God then finds them in the Garden of Eden, and thus it begins--the first official reaming in history.

To the serpent: "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

To the woman: "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

And to Adam: "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

And then . . . after being ignored by His own children . . . after watching His creation break the only rule in eternity . . . after finding Adam & Eve among the trees of the garden naked and ashamed . . . and finally, after disciplining them as only a Father can do . . . God pauses . . . and did what any good Father would do. He met their need. "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." He personally made the garment Himself and clothed His children.

Does this hit you like it does me? Only a loving, faithful, and persistent God--desperately wanting a relationship with His children--could do this after being so carelessly rejected by those same children. How many rules have I broken? How about you? Have you ever found yourself naked and ashamed, alone and afraid after doing what you KNOW was wrong? I don't think I even want to start counting? Too many, that's for sure.

And then, to stay in character and prove His love for us, He did it again two thousand years ago. Only this time it wasn't a couple--it was the world. It wasn't a rule that was broken--it was a life. And it wasn't a garment--but His pure, forgiving righteousness that was draped over His entire creation. And this time we get to remain in the Garden . . . for eternity.