“Where are you?” God calls
out to Adam and Eve after they’d eaten the forbidden fruit and hidden
themselves from Him in the shadows of the Garden of Eden.
I hope we are all familiar
with this story in Genesis: The Fall of Man.
And I hope that we pass this story on to all generations, so they may
learn what man has lost through sin after succumbing to the temptations of the
evil-one. In knowing this story, are we
able to appreciate God’s gift in sacrificing His only Son, Jesus, to restore us
to eternal life. For when God banished
Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden it was to the Tree of Life that he denied
them access. This gift is from God
alone, restored to us through Jesus, the Christ.
After the fall of man, when
Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, they became aware of good and evil
just as the evil-one said, but realizing in their nakedness – they now knew
what they had done was evil. As they
hear God approaching they hide themselves out of shame and fear: Shame for
their disobedience and fear of God’s punishment.
While they hide in the dark,
God searched for them in the Garden, calling, “Where are you?” He sought them out until He found them. God’s love for His children brought Him to
search for them; knowing that they were lost and afraid. He knows us too, for we also are His
children. As he did with Adam and Eve,
he continually searches for us, calling out, “Where are you?” Unceasingly, He searches wherever we may be
hiding from Him, in our shame and fear.
God loves all His sheep and tirelessly seeks His lost lambs: rescuing
them from all the most dangerous places into which they fall; carrying them
back into the fold.
As we begin our season of
Lent: our special time for reflection and examination, let us come out from our
hiding places and allow God to find us, no matter what deep dark place we’ve
fallen into. None is too terrible that
God will not go to rescue us and return us to His safety.
- Let us step out from hiding in the dark to come into the light of Christ; seeking God’s unending mercy and love.
- Let us run into the embrace of His loving arms to be comforted and caressed.
- Let us be reconciled with Him and His people, in the Body of Christ: healed and restored: to take up our rightful place in the peace of heaven.
- Let us not be afraid to accept our just punishments, as we accept God’s love and His gift of salvation and reward of eternal life.
When God asks us, “Where are
you?” we should ask ourselves “Where am I” in my relationship with God. I use this rhetorical question when speaking
with seekers, candidates and catechumens as they come to the Church looking for
the sacraments. I ask this because the
Church are not a sacrament factory, but body of fellow seekers of God’s love all
on this journey of discipleship in Jesus Christ. It is our discipline as Christians to watch
out for, care for: support, strengthen and encourage one another on our journey
into God’s kingdom.
We are each called by God into
an ever closer relationship with Him, through Jesus and the Spirit. God never stops searching for us. We should never stop reaching out to Him. He knows our frailty, our weakness and wants
us to come into the Light of Christ to be healed and reconciled with Him and with
one another.
What God has denied us in
this life through original sin, He wants to return to us in the promise of His
heavenly kingdom. He knows we live in
the world where the evil-one rules. He
knows we are tempted and misled by the lies spoken by the great deceiver. Just as he tricked Adam and Eve, evil works
to plant doubt in our minds and fill us with desires of our own magnificence,
so we may make gods of ourselves and remain banished from God’s kingdom.
It is important to ask
ourselves where we are in our relationship with God.
- Where we are on our Road to Emmaus, our journey of discipleship in Jesus Christ?
- Do I truly live as Jesus taught and believe in Him?
- How much closer am I to God today than I was yesterday?
So, when God asks, “Where
are you?” Am I hiding in darkness or am
I standing in the Light?
When He calls to me – do I
stay silent, hidden from His sight or do I say, “Here I am Lord! Speak, for your servant is listening.” ~Amen
Peace,
Deacon Don Ron
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