Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. Psalm 104:1-2
God’s clothing is majestic and filled with splendor, like a garment of light. Imagine the sight of God walking in the Garden of Eden.
Imagine seeing God in all His majesty and splendor.
Like Isaiah, we might fall to the ground and proclaim “Woe is me!” (Isaiah 6: 5)
But Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the cool of the evening.
God made man and woman in His image or likeness. (Genesis 1:26) Image bearers of God. Have you thought of yourself as an image bearer of God? A representative of God?
Adam’s Need
Imagine God creating a beautiful garden filled with luscious fruits, delicious vegetables, fragrant flowers, towering trees, and friendly animals of all shapes and sizes. There, God created Adam and told him to take care of the garden and name the animals. Adam tended the garden and met all the animals. I like to think that the animals came to him as male and female together. He named them, but he found no companion like himself to help him, no friend to fulfill his needs.
Was God preparing Adam to recognize his need for a companion … someone to partner with him in his ministry to God?
God’s Gift
As a result, God caused Adam to fall asleep. He took a part of Adam’s side to fashion a woman, Eve. Then, God presented Eve to Adam. Adam was elated. “This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23).
Together, Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the evening – naked and unashamed.
Together, Adam and Eve walked side-by-side with God.
Together, man and woman talked with God.
Together, husband and wife were one with each other and one with God.
Naked and Unashamed
Why were they naked and unashamed? At first, I thought that was too much information. Why would the Holy Spirit include that in the second chapter of the Bible?
Dr. Alewine has this to say:
“Rabbinic insight is that the clothing of Adam and Eve was glory, or radiance … a white light invisible to the human eye that was replaced with a covering of skins … The white light is the same covering of the Bride of Messiah in Revelation. The Bride reflects the Lamp of the New Jerusalem, the Lamb. … there was a spiritual covering over the first couple’s earthly bodies, a covering or radiance pictured when Moses spoke with Adonai on the mountain, receiving the Torah covenant for Israel. Like the Holy One in whose image they were made, they had corresponding covers of light like garments.” (p. 175)
The majesty of God covered in light. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus’ face shone.
“And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.” Matthew 17:2
Those who are believers will be clothed in white linen, and will dwell in the light of God where there will be no need of the sun, for God will be the light. (Revelation 22:5)
Have you met someone for the first time, and you instantly knew that she was a Christian? You didn’t see a light around her, but you saw a light within her demeanor, within her eyes, within her interaction with you. Something that pointed you to Jesus.
Can people see Jesus in you? Click To TweetNaked and Ashamed
But darkness would soon enter the Garden.
The serpent deceived Eve into thinking that she could become like God if she would disobey God’s one command: do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam was warned that in the day that he ate of it, he would die, but the serpent told her that she would not die.
So Eve took a bite from the forbidden fruit and gave it to Adam who was with her.
The looked at each other, and they saw their nakedness and were ashamed. Their sin was immediately apparent. No longer were they innocent before each other and God.
Broken!
Their beauty shattered. They see their sin and try to cover it up.
God Calling
Have you done something that broke your relationship with God? Of course you have. We all have! Did shame overwhelm you?
Because we stumble in many ways – ways like Adam and Eve and much more, broken pieces of colored glass line our paths.
“They saw themselves disrobed of all their ornaments and ensigns of honour, degraded from their dignity and disgraced in the highest degree, laid open to the contempt and reproach of heaven, and earth, and their own consciences.” Matthew Henry
“Adam where are you?”
“We’re naked and hid from You.”
“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?”
The blame game begins: “The woman You gave me! … The serpent deceived me!”
The Curse
The consequence of breaking God’s one commandment was spiritual death and eventual physical death, a cursed earth, a dust-eating serpent, a painful childbirth, a survival of hard labor, enmity between the woman and the serpent, marriage struggles, and separation from God.
But there’s a promise! HOPE
The Promise
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15
In the third chapter of the Bible, we have hope restored! Through Eve, the mother of all the living, will come the One who will restore our relationships with God – the Messiah – Jesus!
God covered their nakedness, their shame, with tunics of animal skins – the first blood sacrifice.
Then they were expelled from the Garden of Eden.
Shattered home. Smashed Relationships. Hardships.
The consequences of their sin, sent into a cursed world to experience the thorns of brokenness, broken relationships, sickness and eventually death. But God points Eve to His promise.
I can imagine her remembering their talks with God as they walked in the Garden.
Have you had special times with the Lord like no other times. Times that you felt His loving presence more than usual? Do you reminisce about the sweet times with God? Do you smile, and say “Love You Lord!”
Remembering the sweet times, the precious walks and talks with God, can empower us to see the beauty in the shards of glass of broken dreams, hopes, and relationships that line our life paths. Click To TweetI like to think that Eve held fast to those walks in the Garden with Adam and God.
She remembered God’s promise to her – through her Seed would come her Redeemer.
Hope came when she bore Cain and Abel. But you know the story. The brothers offered a sacrifice to God, and God regarded Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. Enraged, Cain killed Abel, and God marked Cain and sent him off to Nod.
Another hope smashed to pieces.
Then, Eve bore Seth. He had a son, Enosh, and then men started calling on the name of the Lord. (Genesis 4:25-26)
The Seed of Eve: Eve to Seth to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to David to Mary to Jesus, the Messiah!
The Plan
Plans for welfare, not for calamity—Yes, your dreams, your hopes, your plans may have been broken.
To give you a future and a hope.
Did Eve have a future?
Yes! She was going to have a son, Seth, whose line would bring generations: Abraham, David, and finally the Promise of Forgiveness of Sins, the Messiah
God had plans for Eve. What a blessing He gave her.
He picked up the shards of glass from her broken relationships, her smashed plans, her shattered dreams and pieced together a work of art.
God has plans for you, and they are good. His plans give you a future and a hope! He can take your glass shards and make a one-of–a-kind stained glass masterpiece.
When our dreams are shattered, we can remember Eve’s shattered hopes, her broken glass and know that the Holy Spirit picks up that broken glass and forms pictorials of the love that God has demonstrated in their lives.
Eve clung to God’s Words. She held onto the promise: through her seed, would come the One who would bruise the head of Satan. Through her seed would come her Redeemer, Jesus!
But we’re not to keep them hidden. We’re to hang them high so that others can see what God is doing through you and give Him glory.
The Holy Spirit hangs stained glass memorials around you, and as the Son of God shines His love through the glass, yellows, greens, reds, blues, and unimagined colors bounce upon and through them to their delight. Gifts of love from our Father.
We’re to let Jesus’ light shine through the broken glass that He has fashioned into beautiful art, stained glass.
We need to let His light shine through us upon others so that they will glorify God.
How do you reflect God’s light?
Walk and Talk. We walk with God and talk with Him. He reveals Himself through the Holy Spirit who abides in all God’s followers.
Read and Listen. The Holy Spirit uses God’s Word, the Bible to reveal the Light of the World. We read and listen for that still small voice.
Rejoice and Shine. We rejoice in our Maker and shine for others to see and give God glory.
I always thought that the hymn referred to Adam and Eve walking in the Garden with God. But Austin Miles wrote it in 1912 at Easter time as he was meditating on John 20.
Mary Magdalene saw the empty tomb, and crying, turned to a man she thought was the gardener. She asked if he had taken Jesus’ body.
“Mary.”
“Rabboni!” And she fell to her knees.
Whether in the Garden of Eden or in the Garden of the Tomb, God was there.
God’s Light shines upon a broken World.
Never the same. Eve and Mary Magdalene now lived in hope, an everlasting hope that transformed the world. They let God’s light shine through their brokenness and their shame, and that light fell upon others, giving them freedom in in the Promise.
Will you allow God to take up your shattered glass, piece it into a masterpiece, and shine through you?
Let God pour out your shattered glass and piece it into a masterpiece, so that His light can shine through you. Click To TweetFather, Thank You for taking the shards of glass created by our sins, forgiving us, and wiping away our sins. Only You can take what’s left of our brokenness and create beautiful masterpieces that reflect Your love and Your glory upon others. We love You, Lord and bask in Your Light. Amen
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*Featured image by Johannes Plenio from Pixabay
