Covering

I love how refreshing it is to attend church and have your eyes opened to the mystery of His Word.
I believe the Father has hidden so many lessons in His revealed Word and He is just watching and waiting for us to discover them.  He wants us to know Him in a very real and deep way, so His purposeful phrasing or stories told, reveal His ways.  Only by studying, meditating, and praying can we discover His beautiful mysteries and unravel the tapestry of His story.


                            "Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made
                                     tunics of skin and clothed them."
                                                                         -Genesis 3:21

I have probably read this verse 50 times and thought nothing about it.  If I did ponder the message I may have thought, "How nice, God made them some clothes to wear from some poor animal."  Nothing too deep.  But God is intentional, He has a reason for doing things in His will and in His way. 

First, our God is a God of compassion.  Because of the fall of man into the world of sin and death they knew. . . they knew good and evil. . . and they knew they were naked.  Holy innocence lost, shame and embarrassment enter.  Mercifully, he provides clothing for the hiding, crying humanity.


Then one ponders, that God Himself caused the first deaths on earth.  The man and woman should have been the first to die, after all wasn't the punishment for eating of the tree death.  The price of disobedience was the loss of life.  But God the ever merciful one, chose life before death.  He allowed them to live for the moment, but their eventual death was sure.  Instead He picks one of the creatures to die to cover the sinning ones. 


An animal is chosen.  One of the creatures who gently walked up to Adam in the garden.  He stood there confident and trusting, allowing the man to stroke his hair, to admire the beauty of one creeping on the earth.  Then Adam gives him a name. . . a definition. . . an identity.  And the animal roams the garden still trusting in man's authority and care for the creatures.


Adam remembers the day he named this one.  How he had admired its deep eyes, his powerful muscles, and strong legs.  How he had known he was to care for these animals, to keep them in peace,  but now all had changed.  Now Adam watches as the Lord himself takes his beautiful creation aside and takes its breath from it.  Then God uses the skin meant for protection and warmth and beauty and fashions a garment for the man.  Peace is lost.  Trust is gone.  The sacrifice made for sinning man.


Now Adam bears the skin as an emblem of sacrifice.  Something once loved slaughtered on his behalf.  The blood spilt to cover his shame.


This reminds me of someone.  Someone who sacrificed His very life, gave His very blood, so that I, a sinner would be made clean, covered by grace.  His blood was spilt to cover my shame.  He had to die, so that I could be reconciled to the Father. 


Isn't it amazing how the beginning of the story and the redeeming of the story all began in the mind of God?  He knew the ultimate sacricfice would have to made for man and that the sacrifice would be His beloved Son.  That is why He shows us throughout Scripture in a tangible way, what sacrifice really is.  We see it in the garden, we see it in Isaac, in the Passover Lamb, temple offering. . .life given to cover the sins of man.  All this preparing us for the greatest sacrifice of all time.



I am thankful today for. . .
180.   the covering of His grace
182.   mysteries revealed
183.   smiling, wet, grass covered kids
184.   little arms that wrap around your neck for welcome home hugs
185.   getaways with my sweet husband
186.   dinner by the water
187.   holding hands
188.   sweet grandparents caring for little ones
189.   surprise gifts