Clothed in Love

Read Together
Genesis 3:6-15, 20-21 & Ephesians 1:3-6

Light two candles and say together
He chose us in Christ.
(from Ephesians 1:4) 

Reflection

Can you feel that moment? That eye-opening moment? That moment where everything changed? Imagine being there, realizing that you just ruined everything you've ever known. Nothing will be the same. You look down and see yourself as a failure, a screw-up, wrong and bad and unworthy. 

This was Adam and Eve's story. But it is also ours, isn't it? The voice that got into the head of the humans in the garden is also the voice that gets into our head. It is a voice of discouragement and shame, a voice of lies. It is a voice that makes us question everything that God said is true. 

So what do you do when that voice gets loud? Do you hide and begin sewing together a new identity, one that will try to cover up the shame and pain? That's what Adam and Eve chose to do in this story. They also deflected, assigning blame in every other direction but themselves. Eyes-opened to their brokenness, they could not bear to carry the weight of it, and so they pushed it off onto everyone else: Onto those whom they loved the most, and those they hated most. (Notice that no one was safe from being assigned blame, not even God: "The woman you gave to be with me...".)  

God makes a promise in this passage that cannot be missed. There is a promise of retribution, placing the blame on the serpent, the originator of these lies: "I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel." This points all the way to Jesus on the cross and His resurrection, a plan set in place right in these opening pages of Scripture. 

But you must also notice something else. The promise of a far-off victory is not the only sign of healing and hope here. The Lord God, demonstrating an intimate knowledge of the shame and the pain His people were experiencing and caring deeply for their needs, "made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them." Regardless of their choices and the consequences of those actions, God still met them in their agony. He saw the weight of their shame and their efforts to change how they were perceived, and He began to already offer them an identity shaped by Him once more. No fig leaf made by our own hand can ever cover up our shame like the identity crafted by our loving Father.  

As we get ready for Christmas, to celebrate Jesus's coming and to look to Him coming again, we have to return to this origin story because it gets right into the core of our deepest heart-needs. It touches the most wounded break in our hearts with a surgeon's precision. It identifies the voice in our heads that says "You are not enough. You are not worthy. You have screwed up again and again and again. You are not loved. You are not liked. You are not welcome. You do not belong." It takes all of that and it replaces it with this: "Jesus came for you." Because of Jesus, you are "chosen," you are "holy and blameless in His sight," you are "loved," you are blessed, you are welcomed in. (Ephesians 1:3-6).

Choose which voice you'll listen to — which identity you’ll believe.

Talk About

  • What is the lie you tell yourself that keeps you from believing the truth about your God-given identity and value?
  • If you’re entering into this today with a group or a family, go around the table and have everyone share an affirming truth about each person, emphasizing their God-given gifts and worth. If you're praying alone today, write down the truths about who God says you are, praying specifically for God to counter the lies you have been believing about yourself.

Pray Together
Heavenly Father, we thank you because we know that every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from you, all because you see us wrapped into Christ. As we prepare for Christmas, heal the wounds of our hearts and let us live into the identity Christ has wrapped us in.
Amen. 

Put it in Action
Give a compliment to every person you see today. 

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