oh how He loves us

I recently meditated on Genesis 3.21 - and once again realised how much God must have love His Adam and Eve.

When they sinned against their Creator God did not turn His back on them - not at all. In fact He went looking for them, even in their wrong. When they heard God walking in the garden they hid from Him. How silly....He called them and asked them why they were hiding...As if God did not know what they did and why they were hiding.

What struck me about this was He still went looking for them. He did not ignore them for a week, giving them a cold shoulder, nor did He had a tit-4-tat attitude... no. God wants to have fellowship with us and knowing thát I think God wanted to restore the uneasiness and tension, He wanted them to feel save again - even in their wrong, to restore peace.

God must have been disappointed that they did what He specifically asked them not to do. Surely He was must have been upset that they disobeyed Him. Yet God chose to show mercy and kindness and love and forgiveness. 

When God asked them 'where are you' --- this question might as well be why are you hiding?

God loves us unconditionally - He is not going to love us less when we did something wrong - maybe it’s because we love conditionally, behave and forgive conditionally...

I will forgive you.... if you promise never to steal again

I will take you back....if you promise never to cheat on me again
I will wash the dishes....if you make the bed
I will give you a star on your chore chart....if you make your bed every morning

Will we ever get it that God wants us to run to HIM when we did something we weren't supposed to?

I remember when I was a little girl I would hide from my father when I did something that would upset him knowing that he was going to spank me. I was terrified of him.

I know today that the hiding was the consequence of the act/me being naughty...but at the time I hated him for it because he was often unfair and very cruel in his methods of punishment.

As I grew closer to the Lord and began to [try] understand His love for me, His thoughts, plans and sacrifices He made for me, only then did I start letting go of the 'fear that God would react as my earthly father did'. I had yet to learn that God is not going to give me time out, or make me stand in the corner of the room, or sit in the bathroom for hours - He wants to me to make it right with Him, right away so I can go on with my day without living it in fear, without feeling imprisoned by guilt and shame.

We need to adopt an attitude of asking for forgiveness, apologise to God for our stubborn and rebelliousness immediately after we have sinned; so that the sin cannot get a hold on us ....."Sin is lying outside your door ready to attack. It wants to control you, but you must master it" (Gen 4.7)