"Where Are You?"

Week 2:
I'm going through the book of Genesis, and my goal would be to focus on one thing I've read this week and write my thoughts about it.  Easy, right?  Well, to be perfectly honest, Genesis is one of the weirdest books of the Bible in my opinion.  And as many times as you read the story of Creation, it's not easy to find something to write about when half of the time you've heard the story a million and a half times and the other half you have no idea what it's even saying.  But somehow, the Holy Spirit still unveils new truths about the Word, and so one thing I know is true: it's a living Word.  It's moving and active; the words don't change, but the understanding of it changes as we dig just a little bit deeper.  And just behind the surface I find a trove of new treasure I've never seen before.  And all of a sudden... reading that verse for the thousandth time is worth it.
Relationship.  God is all about relationship.  God created man in His own image so He could interact with man.  Chapter 2, verse 18 says this, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.'"  And that's when He made woman.  God loved Adam.  He could have just been content there.  But because of His value for relationship not only for Him but for man, God created a companion so that man would not be lonely.  I love how the beginning of all humanity started in a garden with just God and a man.  It was so intimate, and God was so concerned with relationship, that He created woman to join in partnership with man.  And that partnership reflects our partnership and relationship with God.  Or at least what it should look like.  So humble and unashamed, naked in the open, yet so unashamed!  
One of the lines in this passage that gets me every time is when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit from the forbidden tree, and suddenly they were ashamed of their nakedness and hid from God and God came into the garden and said, "Where are you?" That was the separation of their relationship.  In that moment, the one thing He says is "where are you?".  But in that heart-broken question, there is the chance to say "here I am, Lord" and to be found.  It is the unanswered question that separates our relationship from God; the shame of being naked, of being uncovered; the shame of our partnership.  But love overlooks that.  1 John 4:18 "For there is no fear in love."  And that was His intent in the very beginning.  That though we fall into shame, we should experience the fullness of relationship through love.  It's my favorite part of the scriptures.  It never ends without love.  Love is the thing that completes it and makes it what it was created to be.