06/25/2017
The coolness of the morning accompanied by a restless wind, through the canopy of trees, awakened me unexpectedly and early from a horrible night of sleep. The ground, normally soft and welcoming on my body, seemed unforgiving as I tossed from side to side; for the first time I experienced discomfort, pain, and a numbness simply absent from any previous night of slumber.
Raising slowly to my feet I immediately felt that something was different, something was awry. The woman that He had given me, still slept, yet she lay curled up and as I placed my hand upon her side in an attempt to reduce the shivering that encompassed her being, she slowly began to open her eyes. The warmth of my hand caused her to want more as she pulled me close and next to her. Our bodily heat, one to the other, reduced the effects of the cold morning and we laid dumbfounded to the consequences that consumed our existence.
We whispered softly to each other, not knowing why, other than we might be overheard by Him. We replayed the events of the prior days encounter with the snake and both, simultaneously, felt emotions we had not yet encountered; guilt, shame, and awkwardness overcame us with a ferocity that was relentless in its offering. We wept, quietly, in one other’s arms and small droplets of water, this too new, trickled from our eyes and down our faces; we remained in our comforting embrace as neither of us wanted to rise from such.
The warmth of the sun stirred us and finally we began the day. Looking upon each other, differently, we recognized immediately that we were uncovered and naked. Uncomfortable we began to affix together the leaves of the fig tree to act as a covering and or an apron. Earlier we had heard the voice of Him, walking in the midst of the rather large garden, and because both of us felt so uneasy, we hid in and amongst its canopy. Over and over we heard His call until finally He found us.
His call, specifically to me, not so much to the woman as he bellowed my name, “Adam” sent chills down my spine. I was fearful to respond, unwilling to answer and we remained quiet still in the thickness of the covering; the woman gripped my hand tighter still as the call came once again and I was experiencing emotional overload as my body shook and quivered without hindrance.
Then finally, as if next to me, “Where are you?”
This question, the first question posed by God to man, still resonates today. Time, measured in years has not, in any way, diminished its call, the shifting of sands, numerous, have not nor will ever be capable of shrouding its herald; and what of distance, might it eradicate the cry from the Father, specific to His children?
This morning, in His presence, He taps away, quietly, at the keyboard of our hearts, and desires to know of our answer to the call, to the herald spoken by Him with fervency, with ferocity, with urgency and with an unending resolve, ever waiting, patiently, for our consideration and our response…
”Where are you?”
Father, we come before you this day, each one of us, broken in some way. Some of us are hiding, some of us are running as with Jonah from the call You have on our lives, some of us contemplating life’s unanswerable questions, as Martha and Mary, “Lord, if thou hadst been here,” some of us simply hurt, we have lost our way, we are walking in unforgiveness, in bitterness, we are lonely, incapable of receiving the love you so long for us to possess, your fullness and yet, all the while, you remain, never leaving us, never forsaking us, always there, so very near, closer than we can imagine, wondering… “Where are you?” Father forgive us, let us answer right now, without further delay, and with the same volume back to you, we are here Lord and we need you so very much. We need you to place balm upon the injuries, the bruises, the cuts, the scars, inflicted without deterrent by life and its unending trials and tribulations. We confess the selfishness of these desires yet we must know, with a certainty, that there is a greater purpose beyond ourselves Lord. Scripture so eloquently notes, “There was a man sent from God, and his name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through Him might believe.” Father, are we not all, every single one of us, sent from thee, and could it not be that the name John is interchangeable and that our names, in humility, could be placed within the same confines of scripture? Sure, many of us are poor in the eyes of the world, possessing little, without eloquence of speech, without influence, without power and yet though we lack in these, what we do have, is it not utterly eye opening? The words of Paul leap off of the pages with boldness, with clarity, and with power as we too proclaim of your goodness, your grace, your mercy, your peace and of a surety your love to all that will hear of such wonderment. “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
“Where are you?” Give us courage to answer!
Undone,
Daniel