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Meditation 7

Truth Hiding

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

—Genesis 3:7–11

Is it time to fess up?

Almost everything about it was wrong. I had trained as a scuba diver, and had several practice dives in various freshwater springs. But this was my first open water dive with three of my fraternity brothers. We took a small boat (wrong) three miles out into the Gulf (wrong). While people knew we were going, no one really knew exactly where (wrong). We rented equipment we did not thoroughly check out (wrong). We did not take a dive master with us (wrong). We split up in pairs (wrong). When my friend and I descended sixty feet to the bottom, we could not find a place to secure the anchor so we left that to our comrades (wrong).

So now, working in reverse order—my equipment went on the blink and began free-flowing air from my respirator. I was running out of air quickly, more quickly than I thought. We began to swim back to where the anchor “was” (gone by the way). As we followed the track it left in the sand, I took my last breath before the air went completely out. My friend and I began to buddy-breathe to the top. When we did pop up, our boat was nowhere to be seen (no anchor means a free-floating boat). We were floating three miles out, land was a distant sight, no air in the tanks, and no signs of help.

The fact that I am telling this story means we did make it back (much longer story). I remember when we were pulled into the boat, I flopped on the deck, let out a big sigh, and said, “Let’s just go back home.” I suppose I could have blamed a lot of people for that pickle I was in, but really, the only one to blame was little old me.

In the Garden, God laid out the rules. “Here is a gift . . . use it . . . enjoy it . . . go here . . . don’t go there . . . as long as you do that, you’ll love it here . . . you’ll have no shame . . . cross the line and all kinds of bad things will begin to happen.” Of course, we know how it turned out. Tempted to “be like God,” the first humans ignored the very first and essential divine directive, and, literally, all hell broke loose.⁶ What we are told is that as soon as humans began to disobey, they reaped what they sowed. Bad choices bear spoiled fruit, no way around it.

While the gift of guilt may nudge us toward innocence, at times we have a tendency to sidestep the truth and blame our wrong choices, our sins, on others. As soon as God began to question Adam, he pointed to Eve; Eve pointed to the snake, and so on. As soon as they did it, they knew what they did was wrong, and rather than fess up to God, they sought to hide both literally (covering themselves) and verbally (evading God’s cross-examination).

The best way to deal with an infection is to spot it, name it, and then find the right antibiotic to treat the sickness. The best way to deal with our sins is to name them. We must come to terms with the truth that our actions, thoughts, and feelings may be a source of pain and brokenness in our relationship with God, with others, and even ourselves.

Adam and Eve got caught with proverbial hand-in-cookie-jar disease, followed closely by foot-in-mouth disease. How much better it would have been just to come clean! Eventually they did, of course, and when they did, they had to pay the price of consequences for their actions. But they did not lose relationship with or the love of their God.⁷

Poet Jonathan Swift wrote, “Never be ashamed to own you have been in the wrong; it’s but saying you are wiser today than you were yesterday.” As the old saying goes, confession is good for the soul. Indeed.

A Bit of Heaven

Take some time; consider where you may be hiding the truth. What might you need to fess up to begin a fresh start? Covering it will just mean the burden of guilt will grow. Exposing it, however, allows for the healing to begin. Augustine wrote, “Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves.” Why not begin today?

A Prayer

Jesus said, There is joy among the angels of God

Over one sinner who repents.

Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden

And I will give you rest.

God has promised forgiveness to all who truly repent,

Turn to Christ in faith, and are themselves forgiving.

In silence we call to mind our sins.

[Silence]

Let us confess our sins.

Merciful God,

We have sinned

In what we have thought and said,

In the wrong we have done

And in the good we have not done.

We have sinned in ignorance;

We have sinned in weakness;

We have sinned through our own deliberate fault.

We are truly sorry.

We repent and turn to You.

Forgive us, for our Saviour Christ’s sake,

And renew our lives to the glory of Your name. Amen.

A Pronouncement of Forgiveness

Through the cross of Christ, God have mercy on you,

Pardon you and set you free.

Know that you are forgiven and be at peace.

God strengthen you in all goodness

And keep you in life eternal. Amen.

—From A New Zealand Prayer Book,

He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa⁸

6 Genesis 3:5.

7 Read on, Genesis 3:12–24. Adam and Eve’s relationship with God was forever changed, and they were given burdens to bear, including being expelled from Eden, but they were still children of God created in His image.

8 Michael Counsell, comp., 2000 Years of Prayer (Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 1999), 503.