AS much as I’ve changed over the past several years in my thoughts about God, life, and the Bible, it still amazes me the number of things that I’ve never sat down and challenged and thought through.  Take, for instance, Bible stories. Growing up in church, I heard every one about a million times.  I would even correct the teacher from time to time.

So many of these same stories I still haven’t revisited with my adult intellectual mind and my ever-expanding, yet more intimate & personal knowledge of God.

A few years back, I gave Adam and Eve a second look.  Simplistic story right? Even people who’ve never have been to church somehow know this one.  What’s there to find?

You know what I find really sad about myself?  You know a really good reason why I never look back at this story?   I’ve been consumed a lot more with the fall than the intimate details that this story reveals.

At first glance, we hardly identify with these two people, except for the fact that they ultimately blow it and disappoint God. It’s as though nothing was ever passed down from these people except a nature prone to brokenness and sin.

Let me ask you: Has this story ever tugged at your heartstrings?

So what is the story as you recall?  Something like God speaks the world into exis­tence over a period of 6 solid days capped off by creating man and taking a little nappy. Genesis is written chronologically, so it gives us the sense that God created Eve on Day 8 or so, then Day 9 or 10, they sin by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, bringing the whole human race down with it.

I think that’s a good outline of major events.  But I think there’s a lot of story and liv­ing that is right below the surface, if we can just go to this place that’s seemed all too familiar and give it a fresh pair of eyes and heart.

So let’s pick up with Day 8…

Man. He’s perfect in every way and possesses authority & power – those are two really important things to guys.  But somehow those things don’t ultimately make him.

I mean, have you ever thought of Adam as a guy with dreams and ambition?  I didn’t used to think so.  I thought he was bored. I always pictured him walking around a lit­tle garden all day eating fruit, or sitting on a rock with his hand under his chin as animals passed by him: “monkey…dog…lion…bear…”  I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but animals in the wild don’t just walk up to you to be named.  If you have the picture of God creating a person who’s the epitome of a spoiled, American teenager, then maybe Adam had Tivo, a stocked fridge within arm’s reach, and even the menial tasks that he did have would be at his feet – or in this case walking right in front of him. C’mon!  Do you think this is a reflection of a perfect creation?  Do you really think God just made lazy people with zero ambition?

Adam was an explorer.  He climbed trees and mountains. He went on treks to the wa­ters and dived down as far as he could, and for as long as he could, to experience life in the sea, encountering first hand and naming creatures. There was something about his life that was edgy, risky, and a sharpness that bit him everyday to make him want more.

He was fierce, tenacious, planning, dreaming, thinking outside the box, wondering what could be next. He had full authority & power from God – all he really needed to succeed.  And he was succeeding.  Things were being created from his hands.  He was a traveler. The Garden was massive, not some 2 acre plot – it was a huge ex­panse. He was always seeing and experiencing, naming some millions of species. He’d seen and done a lot. But he was just so stinkin’ lonely.  Somehow all he did and accomplished at the end of the day missed some meaning.  And God would watch him – God would have a smile on His face every day watching His mini-Him, dream, create, etc.  But God also noticed the lack of his smile being full.  And God had a plan for that too.

Let’s say it took a hundred years for Adam to complete that first “little” job.  He con­quered in those years, but he noticed that no matter how close he got to those created things, no matter how much he accomplished, it was missing something.  You know, if you’ve hung out with chimps for years and years, there’s a gratitude and apprecia­tion when a human being comes into existence.

Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…”

Doesn’t sound that romantic, does it?  But imagine everything that Adam was trying to put into words.  You can’t imagine how meaningful it must’ve been for Adam right there to have all of these things, to have accomplished so much, to have seen the world – it’s beauty, it’s danger – and now he’s got someone to share that with. Not just anyone – someone who in many ways looks like him only more beautiful, more social, more relationally gifted, compassionate, emotional, contemplative – it was awe­some.  He felt so loved and embraced by God.

These weren’t cut-out characters or coloring book people – but real human beings with hopes, dreams, emotions – doing life together. Man + Woman + God, and it was all perfect.  I bet they didn’t have self esteem issues.  Adam? He admired and ro­manced her.  Eve? She thought he was so brave, strong, and she was safe and secure.  God?  He’s right in the center of it – walking with them.  When they saw His face, they saw pleasure and love.  And do you know what else they saw? They saw themselves.

Have you ever been to the hospital to see a family member who’s just been born? When your family gathers at the window and looks into the incubator, what’s the first thing they say? Right after the oooh’s and ahhhh’s, immediately family members start pointing out what features on the baby belong to them – “He’s got my nose”…”He’s got my eyes”…”No he doesn’t! He’s got my eyes.” Family members will argue for years over who they think looks like whom.  But what actually is going on?  They are laying claim to that little baby as soon as they see him.

Parents do this all the time with their small children.  I’m sure your parents did this a lot as well.  “You look just me.”  Or, “You act just like your mom.”  They actually love those parts of you and can’t help but pick you up and remind you of it constantly. You loved it, too.  Boys want to be strong like dad.  Girls put on their mom’s high heel shoes and makeup if they can reach it.  Your identity is taken from your parents.

It was the same way in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve had the perfect spiritual relationship with God, but they also had a physical relationship with Him.

What would it look like for a perfect loving Father to go on a walk with His kids? We know they walked with God in the garden.  Perhaps that happened for years.  I won­der what those conversations were like.  I wonder if they walked hand-in-hand with God.  I’m sure they did; those kids were everything to Him.  God would win spin them around. Adam and Eve knew by the smile on His face that they were His pride and joy.

Just like your identity was wrapped up in your parents, Adam and Eve’s was wrapped up in the image of God. When they looked at their Creator, they saw a re­semblance to Him. And I think God even told them the same thing: “Adam, you remind me of Myself when you…and Eve, that smirk you get on your face, you got that from Me.” How could Adam and Eve have not felt worth and acceptance when they looked at the Creator of the world and saw themselves?

In no way am I saying anything like: “We are gods,” so don’t go off on that tangent. I think in our brokenness, we struggle with the fact that we are made in God’s image, and for Adam and Eve, that was everything.  They were the only two humans on the planet.  As far as living things go, their very likeness made them a minority; they were the only living things that looked like God.  They were solid.  They didn’t have doubts.  Doubts didn’t enter their minds.

That’s what is so heart-wrenching about this whole story.  In the thousand times I heard or read this story, I was never emotional about it in the very least. It was be­cause I couldn’t identify with being perfect. I couldn’t identify with being the creation of God. I couldn’t identify with myself being made in the image of God.  I mostly couldn’t identify with God wanting to have a relationship like a real father with me.

I went to the park with my daughters yesterday. I would be devastated if that was the last time I would ever walk with them.  I would hurt.  I would grieve.

Well, you know what?  God felt that way.  God still feels that way.  And our fears, our insecurities, our shame are all a direct result of the loss of that intimate relationship.  It’s been difficult for us not to see the smile of God’s face as He looks at us. God be­ing distant is not okay with us.  We feel the need to be swung around in His arms and know the security that His love is never going away.

Adam’s confidence, power, authority; Eve’s safety, security – they were all wrapped up in relationship with God. The relationship was so strong, so pure that neither felt unclothed.  They walked around so naked, they didn’t even know they were naked. They weren’t ignorant or innocent; they were just complete and unashamed. And when that relationship was broken, they knew it instantly because that clothing of security came from God.  When it was gone, they were exposed.  Insecurity arises the instant you know you are alone. Adam and Eve hid themselves. Their first emotions were fear, guilt, and shame.

Our identities never recovered from that.  In his book, Victory Over the Darkness, Neil Anderson writes that what happened at the fall was a loss of the knowledge of God Himself that led to brokenness in our relationship with God, with others, and finally with ourselves. It might be difficult to grasp that the loss of knowledge of God could create such an identity crisis. But our identity was intrinsic to that relationship.

This is how lust originated.  There is sexual lust, but sexual lust is not just lusting after another person’s body. We’re lusting after an intimate experience where we can be told that we are good, right, okay with the world, secure, and desired.

When movies portray sex, the common expression is “I want you.” Teenage girls on talk shows who’ve had multiple sex partners at a young age talk about their desire to be “wanted” by guys. In courtroom scenes, we’ve been disgusted by sexual predators who would say that the person they raped or molested “wanted what they got.”  In all of these cases, it is the good desire of being wanted that has gone bad. The need is legitimate, and the brokenness in relationship has created a vacuum that is attempt­ing to be filled.

Man who once had confidence, power, and authority bestowed by God now lusts for it. Because of the loss of relationship, the replacements became money, power, and status.  We compare athleticism, beauty, checkbooks, sales contests, toys, and even more relational strife is born out of it.

We’re usually in denial that Christians could be shallow people like this.  Truth is, we find other ways to compare.  Often we compare “blessings” that we’ve gotten from God. That’s a way to spiritualize it.  Or on the other side, we compare struggles with other people.  Maybe that strikes a nerve with you.

You know what this is?  It’s brokenness with God. Our beliefs about God are wrong. Have you ever felt cheated – just a little by God?  Maybe someone got something they didn’t deserve. You might have struggled to be happy for one of your friends who just fell in love, won something, or got a promotion.

We often feel like life is this one pie, and when someone gets a big slice that there is less left for us.  So we resent the person, because we resent God.

When our lives our difficult, we look at other people who seem to have fewer prob­lems.  Things are going their way, and they make us sick. Maybe we don’t express it outwardly, but our hearts know all too well that we believe that God loves them more, or He loves us less, or, at the very least, God is just not a good God.

It’s all brokenness.  Because of sin, our knowledge of God was lost which, in turn, caused us to even lose the knowledge of ourselves.  Our perception of reality is twisted, and our identities are wrecked.

Ephesians 4:18

They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God

because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

Because of this lost knowledge of God, the epicenter of our hurt lies in our hearts, and that’s where God wants to work in us. God’s desire is to fully bring us back to life. The word life that’s used in this passage is the word “zoe,” which in a literal sense is the highest form of life that is made vital by Jesus Himself. It’s the life that is brought about because we literally found it in Him.

If He can heal our hearts and we can truly know Him again, then our identities can be put back together.  We can know who we are. We can know that we are already loved.  We can feel secure again.  Our passions will be back in balance. We won’t waste our time comparing with other people.  We won’t be ashamed if we don’t meas­ure up in the world’s eyes.  We won’t take what’s not ours.  We won’t desire what other people have. We won’t define ourselves by any other thing, and we won’t vali­date ourselves by any other person besides God.

How can we be brought back to life?  God gives us the only way that we can respond:

Jeremiah 2:13

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of

living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no

water.

Let’s just say, generally speaking, if you were successful, if you were accomplished, if you knew your life counted, if you knew you left a legacy, if you knew you were loved, if you knew you left a mark, if you knew your name would live on, would you happy?

What if all these things were true, but no one knew it except you and God? Would you still be happy?  Would you be satisfied?

Attempting to find your identity in anything else but God is futile.  God is the source of “zoe” life that we desire.  Anything else in which we attempt to find life in is not life at all.

We’ve all tried to dig out our own wells vainly attempting to find life.  We’re so dark­ened and our hearts so calloused that we can’t even feel that being validated by God is enough.

If we want to be fully alive, then it requires a response.  We have forsaken the living waters.  We’ve said that God isn’t enough for us.  That He’s not worth it. That having Him won’t satisfy us.  We’ve told Him that we’d rather be validated by other things, other indicators of identity and significance.  And we’ve went out on our own and dug for other sources of life.

Our first response has to be very personally directed to God.  Maybe you’re honest and you tell God: “I’ve believed wrongly about You.  I just haven’t valued You.  I ha­ven’t believed that You were enough for me.  I haven’t believed that just having You could possibly satisfy me.”

We need to identify the things that have been our false sources of identity and life, and through God’s power, we need to fill those wells back up with sand.  If you don’t know what they are, then ask God to identify them for you.  Don’t give into fear.  Know that He wants to receive you as His child.

Galatians 4:6-7

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit

who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since

you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

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