God walked among Eve and Adam in the midst of the garden in the cool of the day. His presence wasn’t unassuming, but it wasn’t threatening or obtrusive in any way. It was more like a pleasant breeze that cools you down after a warm and strenuous day. Eve and Adam didn’t know what shame was, so despite their nakedness they were attracted to this amiable and loving presence with whom they could share they hearts.
The Fall changed everything. It wasn’t God that changed. It was man. Man’s nakedness suddenly became a distress and an annoyance in his own eyes. He was so bothered by the fact that he hadn’t anything to offer God that that crippling sensation of shame completely prostrated him. Even worse, he felt so devastatingly unclean compared to the radiant holiness of God. Shame efficiently put up a barrier where before there had been a silent torrent of love flowing between the two lovers. Shame made man hide from God, and wherever there is shame man hides from the only source which can remove shame.
Ever since that day there has been a burning desire in God’s heart to see the intimacy of the Garden restored. In Christ the objective was achieved. In Christ there is no shame. As we move further and further into this mystery of Him being in us and we in Him we find our nakedness again. Nakedness in Him connotes that our original potential is restored to express Him as sons and daughters, as His beloved heirs in a world that is craving for redemption.
When the relationship is restored God walks in the midst of our lives like a cool breeze which gingerly caress our cheeks with affection and love. As the Spirit removes those last residues of shame in our outlook and the last clouds, which have obstructed our vision, evaporate we see that we are perpetually intertwined with Him and that we are the Garden which now blossoms with a lush exuberance that is spectacular in its radiance and beauty.
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