Caution: Pride May Cause a Rash!

   In the beginning of the Bible we see a beautiful relationship between Adam and Eve and God.  They had a perfect relationship, completely open and vulnerable.  So open in fact was the relationship that Adam and Eve could commune with each other and God in a garden completely naked. But all of that changed in the third chapter of Genesis.
 
   After being deceived by Satan and eating from the one tree in all of Paradise that they were asked not to, they hear God coming to commune with them as He had done every day.  But this time was different.  Adam and Eve had felt something they had never felt before... Shame. This caused them to hide from God and cover themselves with leaves.  When God found them HE asked them why they were hiding from HIM.  Adam responded by saying, "I heard you in the Garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."  God responds by asking them, "Who told you that you were naked?"

   When I was around five years old I lived in Florida.  My Mom told me of this story the other day where we were in a grocery store and she was in line checking out and I told her I had to go poop.  My Mom told me to go to the bathroom because it was in eye sight of where she was checking out.  Now apparently when I had finished my "business" I had discovered that there was no toilet paper in the bathroom.  So I did what any five year old boy would do, I walked out of the bathroom with my pants still around my ankles crying and yelling to my mom, "There is no toilet paper in the bathroom!" My mom, without missing a beat, finished paying for the groceries and then opened up the newly bought toilet paper and cleaned me up.  Now this wasn't the only time this had happened to me.  When I was in middle school, I was in a public restroom and after finishing my "business" again discovered no toilet paper to be found.  But this time I was old enough to know what shame was.  There was no way I was going to walk out of that bathroom and admit to anyone that I hadn't wiped yet.  Since it took awhile for me to get home I had developed a rash because of the un-wiped area, Which led to me again crying and having my Mom put ointment on my butt.

  I've realized now that shame can actually separate us from the ones that can help us.  Adam and Eve tried hiding from God after eating forbidden fruit, God being the only one at that point who could save them by sending HIS son to die on a cross.  I was ashamed to ask any of the employees at Sears if they had any toilet paper because the men's restroom was out. Eve got the pains of child birth as punishment and Adam got sentenced to physical labor and working by the sweat of his brow, and I got a rash!  All three of us learned the dangers of letting pride get in the way of help.  What ever you have done know this, God is the one who can bring salvation to your life.  If you feel to dirty, to diseased, to ashamed to let God in on your broken existence, then you are in fact hiding from the ONE who can set you free.  I pray that we learn to let go and let God flood our lives with new mercy's everyday!