Naked

Imagine if you will a dog, sitting on the floor watching its owner eat dinner. This is a normal circumstance for a dog owner. However, what if that dog suddenly got a nice boost in intelligence…and gained knowledge.

First off, the dog would realize the owner was sitting on a chair. “Hum, why can’t I sit at the table?” Then, he would realize that the food the owner is eating is much better than the food he already ate in his bowl…on the floor!

Just following that rather disturbing revelation, would be the big one. “AAAAAH! I AM NAKED!”

Ignorance is bliss, yes, but knowledge is power, power to become more. Yet, knowledge comes with a price and sometimes that price is very expensive to our comfort level.

This scenario with the dog is a simple example that I came up with to understand what happened in the Garden of Eden so long ago. You see, man was NOT perfect prior to eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. No, they were not. For if they were, they never would have believed the lie and done the deed. Therefore, God, obviously did not make them perfect. So when they gained what the tree offered, they realized their actual standing compared to a very perfect Being, the one who made them. This created an instant distance between them relation-ally.

God, is the ultimate of good, simply because as the creator, He defines good. Evil, is anything less than that good, nothing more. It is like darkness, which is merely the absence of light, and because it is, gets “darker” the further away from the light.

Adam and Eve were naked prior to eating from the tree. They didn’t have a problem with it. Ignorance…is bliss. On the flip side, neither did the God who made them. He understood they were not like Him. He was (and is) OK with this. Once they ate from the tree, they had that boost of intelligence (sentience if you will) and suddenly realized what the actual distance was between them and their Father.

It was vast.

Interestingly enough, the nakedness was what drove them into the weeds, hiding because they were now humiliated and shamed by the comparison. God finds them, and even though He knew what they did, still relates to them in a way they can follow.

“Why are you hiding?”

The distance between God and Man or Good and Evil is what the original word for Sin actually means. This is the separation of man and God. The problem is on our end. WE are uncomfortable with this truth, WE hide, WE even go so far as to deny God’s existence.

Yes, it does make one uncomfortable to be around another who is vastly more awesome than us.

Yet, God, knowing all of this has gone to great lengths to express to humankind how much He cares, even expressing it in legal terms and sacrifice. This is why the Jesus thing is so important. It offers everyone a way back to good standing with God through our own realization that our “nakedness” doesn’t matter to Him. He loves us simply because He made us. Not because we are impressive (we are not), not because we are so good (we are not) and not because we are so wise (yea, not so much). He just loves His children.

“Does this mean we can just sin like crazy then?”

No, but it does offer us a really good reason not to be hiding in the darkness and living like animals…acceptance and love.

Love is a great motivator. If I love my wife and she is bothered by a habit, I will work to stop that habit just because I love. Do you see how this works? Man, realizing that God will accept him even though he is filthy, reaches out and finds that it is in fact true. He falls in love with the creator, now accepting his place as a son or daughter. This love changes the perspective of life their goals…”I want to live with and please my father”.

This is how the message of the Good News works. It is a simple message of love and acceptance.

Keep in mind here that God, who is outside of time and space, knew what would happen long before He created man, the garden and the tree. Yes, He even created the serpent who would deceive the two of them.

He intended it.

Yes, God wanted to make us sentient. He wants us to become more than just a Man/Dog relationship.

He wants us to be children.