Pray first. 

Read Genesis 3: 7-11

When my kids were little, I enjoyed a houseful of chatter and clatter. I knew the sounds of my kids, even if we were not in the same room. By their sounds, I could usually tell what they were doing. Maybe they were playing with dolls, doing gymnastics, or crashing Tonka trucks. I also knew when things got quiet, something was up and I’d better go check it out! Maybe I would have been a nicer mom if my mindset had been to catch them doing something good. But I usually had the fear that I would find them coloring each other with markers or writing on the walls. I can’t tell you how many times I caught my littlest girl “decorating” the walls with a pen, pencil or marker. Let me tell you, it’s very difficult to get pencil marks out of the edges of the door frames! It turns out, as an adult, that girl is quite good at home décor. 

“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?’” (Gen 3:8-9)

When God came walking through the Garden of Eden, He already knew where Adam and Eve were and what they had been doing. After all, He is omnipotent! He knew their sounds, just like I knew the sounds of my children. He knew their thoughts. He knew them. He knew they had eaten the forbidden fruit. They had chosen their own way instead of His way. When God asked them, “Where are you,” (v9) He wasn’t really trying to establish their location on the Garden of Eden GPS. His concern was for their hearts. He wanted them to know that he was not the one who moved, they did. What He was really saying, as He says to us, is, “Where are you in relationship to me?” Where did you go? When God said, “Where are you,” He wasn’t coming to catch them coloring on the wall! Nor was He coming to condemn them. He was coming to offer them redemption and restoration. 

John 3:17 says: “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him”.

See, God is not like me, looking to catch my kids in the act of their heinous crimes! When we fail to live according to God’s word, the Bible, no matter what that failure looks like, we have separated ourselves from God. Then God comes looking for us because He loves us. He’s not looking to condemn us, but rather to restore our relationship with Him. “What have you done?” (Gen 3:13) is the opportunity to confess our sin, to own up to our own failure. He wants us to admit that we chose to go our own way instead of His way. He wants us to come back to Him. 

Jesus tells a parable in Luke 15:3-7 about a lost sheep. He tells of a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them got lost. The shepherd, so concerned for the lost sheep, left the other ninety-nine, who were safe and went in search of the one who was lost.  When he found that lost sheep, he was ecstatic. He brought the sheep home and called his friends and family to come rejoice with him over the lost sheep who was now found.  

We have a Redeemer who is like that shepherd. He comes looking for us when we are lost in order to save us, not to condemn us. When we are found, when we turn to Him, all of heaven rejoices that we have been saved. 

Dear friend, you and I are important to Him. When we give in to the tempter and turn away from God, God will come to us asking the same questions He asked Adam and Eve: Where are you? What have you done? 

Maybe you’ve sensed in the depth of your heart that all is not well between you and God. You may have read in his Word and discovered that you are not living according to his precepts, or that you have done something that is against what God would want you to do. We all fall short of the lives God wants us to live (Rom 3:23). Consider how you would answer God’s questions to you. Where are you? What have you done? And let Him do what only He can do: forgive you, redeem you, and restore you. 

Know that God loves you that much! John 3:16 tells us just how much God loves us! 

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Worship: Me On Your Mind by Matthew West

Reckless Love by Cory Asbury

               

Find Tracy on Facebook at Tracy Fields Todd, Writer, and on Instagram at @tracyftodd.