When my children were little, they would run to the door to greet my husband when he arrived home from work—all but my youngest daughter, Meredith. She would hide underneath the dining room table, waiting for her dad to find her. Same place, every night. Meredith wanted to be found.
In her childlikeness, Meredith was displaying something that rings true for everyone. We all want to be found.
After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, they went into hiding. Rather than seek God, their shame made them want to avoid Him.
“Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you” (Isaiah 59:2, niv).
Alienation from God was exactly what the serpent aimed for! Of all the brokenness that resulted from the Fall, this is the most tragic result of all.
Yet it also reveals a characteristic of God that is unlike any other deity throughout all of human history: God searches after man. While Adam and Eve were hiding behind their flimsy fig leaves, the Lord God missed them, sought them, and called out to find them. The restoration process had already begun.
Scarcity says…You blew it. You had your chance. God wants nothing more to do with you.
Abundance answers…“When they heard the sound of GOD strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from GOD.
GOD called to the Man: ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:8-9, msg).
