The Cool of the Day
March 01, 2020
Painting of Adam and Eve inside Abreha and Atsbeha Church, Ethiopia, GNU Free Documentation License
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. - Genesis 3:8
It was the cool of the day on the first day of what they had supposed to be their enlightenment. On the day when they presumed their eyes would have been opened and life would be free, they were suddenly ashamed. What they saw was not the same world of possibilities and wonder, but their own nakedness. They were exposed and vulnerable. All they could think to do was hide.
It was the cool of the day and all was at peace – except the turmoil in their souls.
It was the cool of the day and God was taking a stroll. Ordinarily, that would have been a welcome sound. It would have evoked feelings of blessed anticipation – so sweet was the fellowship they had enjoyed.
“God is coming!” they must have exclaimed many times with youthful glee. “Let’s hurry to meet Him!”
This time, they hurried to flee from Him.
They knew that they would have to have a very unpleasant conversation the next time they met God. They would have to admit that they had disobeyed Him. And to do that, they would have to admit an even more painful truth: they had not believed Him. They had taken the serpent’s word over His.
The serpent had been right about one thing: their eyes had been opened. But they had not seen what they had hoped to see. They had become like gods, but they had not become God or even like God. The only god status they had achieved was the false kind, the fodder of myth and legend. They had come to resemble the capricious, conniving, conscious-of-self kind of creature that knows evil enough to embrace it, but not enough to avoid it.
It was the cool of the day. It ought to have been the most precious time of their day. Instead, because of sin, they hid in the trees God had made. They were foolish enough to think He could not see through them or into their hearts. He sees, He knows, and He comes to confront us and to redeem us.
Don’t hide.