Listen to Audio Devotion

Genesis 3:8
Then 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.

Let me take you back to when we were kids. Now, I don’t know if most of you can relate to this situation, but I feel everyone has gone through this to some extent. So, in my childhood days, we used to get into trouble in many ways- fight with some other kid on the road, don’t do homework for months without anyone noticing, or do some extreme stuff like bursting a hydrogen bomb by fixing it in the cow dung. But in the aftermath of all this, we knew that we were going to get caught and beaten up. So moments before we get beat up, it was a natural tendency to protectively lift our hands and squeeze our eyes tight, as if the person who is going to hit us won’t be able to see us and maneuver through the defense we’ve pulled up. I don’t know; maybe it’s relatable, or maybe it’s not; but the point is this- that at that point we lacked the maturity to see that these were people who loved us, who approached us not with the intention to harm us, but expecting repentance, and showing a willingness to forgive.

Similarly, when we look at one of the most significant scenes of the bible, the fall, we catch a glimpse of how God might have felt when Adam and Eve betrayed His trust in the garden of Eden at that precise moment. Realizing their sin, they made an effort to avoid God (Gen. 3:10). And the same goes with us. When we realize we’ve made a mistake, we frequently want to avoid the repercussions. We hide it, avoid it, or shut our eyes to reality. God sees us (and seeks us!) because He loves us and extends forgiveness through Jesus Christ, even though He will hold us responsible for living up to His moral standard. Remember that whatever it is, Jesus already bore it 2000 years ago. There won’t be another sacrifice. Let’s come out of our cocoons, and live a victorious life in Christ Jesus.

Let’s bow our heads in prayer
Lord, we have woken up today because of your unfailing love and mercy, because we know that your wrath should’ve killed us last night. Thank you for seeing us with love. Lead us to live this victorious life in your name. Amen.