whATTRIBUTES: Attributes of a Loving God
Pursuant One
February 4th, 2022
It is rendering to me that a holy God pursues me, relentlessly chasing after my heart. He is a Gentleman Who doesn’t override my choices and doesn’t insert Himself or come where He is not welcome. But He will always go after us even if it is silent and gentle. He has been doing this from Day One.
Genesis 3:7-11 says, ‘…Then the eyes of both of them [the man and the woman] were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”’
Imagine this, the Creator had spent, what we might consider, time and energy and effort, on making a beautiful space for mankind to inhabit. We haven’t any clue how long the couple lived in the Garden before the Fall occurred, whether a week or years, we don’t know, because time has no meaning in the beginning of…time. I also have always wondered: how long did it take God to dream up this Plan? Had He been dreaming us up for eons, drawing blueprints and developing DNAs to create you and me, checking out Pinterest to get the finest of inspirations, studying gardening guides and reading volumes of DIY magazines? We can only imagine what the God of the Universe breathed into the beginning of time and space and mankind.
And suddenly, the man and woman have gone missing. They are not just His ‘species’, nor His scientific exploration; they are His children. They were birthed from, not only His dream, but from His breath, His heart; get this, His belief. He believed in them, in us, in His creation.
Have you ever misplaced your child? Had your grandchild disappear from your eyesight and out of earshot? When you can’t find something of great importance to you, do you know the way your heart pulses a staccato beat, the clammy feeling on your palms, the sick sensation that springs from the pit of dark and dirty soil in the depth of your being?
Of course, the Lord God didn’t experience any of these emotions. He hadn’t lost one single thing, nor was He really searching for them. The Lord God knew exactly where His beings were, but I believe He wanted to see if they knew where they were, if they could be honest with themselves about why they had chosen to hide, if they understood from Whom they were hiding?
To me, it’s one of the loneliest verses in the Bible. The God of the Universe, the King of all Kings, Almighty God, we find, strolling through the Garden, His place of beautiful creation, in the cool of the day. And who He has come to fellowship with, has gulped in humility at their nakedness, tiptoed behind a tree, attempting to flatten themselves against the bark of the trunk, hoping to blend in. And God, the God, calls out, ‘Where are you?’ I don’t imagine Him panicking as I would, but I think I can guess at His gasp; perhaps, I hear His heart break, an inaudible sigh; He pictures all He dreamt but admits the one thing that could go wrong. And it has.
The man confesses, without thinking, ‘We realized we were naked. Surprised, we became ashamed. So we hid.’ Was it an oversight or an act of idiocy that they would think to hide their nakedness from the God Who created them, who knew them down to their chromosomes and hair follicles? They notice their nakedness and they attempt to hide it. And a Holy and Loving God cries out to them, “Who told you? Who told you, you are naked? Who told you, you failed? Who told you, you disappointed? Who told you, you should feel shame?” I wonder if He was thinking, ‘Who told you? because it wasn’t Me. And it’s only My voice that should matter.’
He chastises, admonishes, prophesies, renders, parents; then, at the end of the day, we find a loving Father sewing clothing with which His children can cover themselves. And to protect them from themselves, He establishes boundaries and places them outside the borders He once had lovingly and excitedly designed for their use and pleasure. Can you even imagine the heart of this Father as He closed this chapter and began to write the next?!
Genesis 3:21-24, ‘The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, or live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.’
Ex 3:13-14, ‘Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (NIV)
