Life Lessons: Innocence Lost
We left Eve in a mess last time. She’d just fallen for Satan’s trick and bitten off a big problem. And she wasn’t through yet. They say misery loves company and it’s true that no one likes to be in trouble alone. Whether we’re talking about some big blatant wrong or something as insidious as gossip, maybe we feel less guilty if we aren’t sinning by ourselves. We think we’ll feel better if there’s someone to “stamp approval” on our actions or even just someone to share the blame with.
But we all know it doesn’t really work that way.
We aren’t the only ones affected by our choices. Our attitudes, words and actions always have an impact on those those around us, either leading them closer to God, closer to being the person they are designed to be, or pulling them away. Eve had a choice about how to use her influence with Adam, and we have a choice every day about how to use ours.
Influence is powerful and it goes both ways; the people we surround ourselves with make a difference in us. Make sure it is a positive one!
I love what Jim Rohn says about influence:
Shame On Me
Here we are witness to the first recorded instance of shame/fear.
“I was afraid because I was naked.” What did Adam and Eve know about being naked? “Who told you were naked?” God asked. It is interesting to note that there was no shame or fear before sin. Isn’t it amazing… the all too brief period of complete innocence in very young children…that time before they become “self-conscious” about their bodies?
Along with awareness, we develop the capacity to feel shame. And while a healthy sense of shame is useful for letting us know we are off course, too often the shame we suffer isn’t healthy at all. It’s one thing to be ashamed about something we did but quite another to be ashamed of who we are. Numerous traumas may erode our sense of self-worth. Left unchecked over time they can destroy us from the inside out.
They aren’t always our fault. That’s a subject in and of itself, but today we’re talking about Adam and Eve and the loss of innocence that came as a result of disobedience to God. Sin is the one thing that is within our control, never someone else’s fault, and always destroys our peace. The pretty lie that was so appealing quickly lost it’s charm.
Adam and Eve had shared a beautiful openness and intimacy with God. Now that relationship was marred. In their shame they did what was natural: they hid. It’s what we do, or at least we try.
No Hiding Place
In so many ways we run from what we don’t want to see. We justify, we rationalize, we excuse. Mostly I think we just distract ourselves somehow thinking if we don’t look and don’t see, maybe God won’t either. But, just like their attempt to hide from God was without success, so is ours. God knew what they had done, and He knows with us as well.
Under the Bus
If wanting a “partner in crime” is human instinct, apparently throwing that partner under the bus when push comes to shove is too. When confronted by God, Adam blames Eve ( aka “the woman you put here with me”) and Eve blames the serpent. I guess part of the draw of sharing the “pleasure” of sin is the hope that we will, if caught, share in the consequence of sin.
But here we learn something else about God: There is no passing the blame. God held all of them accountable for themselves. In the end, we are always responsible for our own choices.
Unfailing Love
The next thing we learn about God is that His love, His kindness, His tender care are unfailing. Having upset the beauty of perfection that He had created, these two stood exposed and in shame.
After they’d done the one and only thing He had forbidden, broken faith with Him, even hidden from Him, God steps in… nurturing, providing comfort, restoring dignity. It’s what He’s been doing ever since.
Innocence undone can’t be restored. Sin changes us and we live with the results of our decisions.
WE are changed by our sin but GOD is not changed by our sin.
We can mess up a lot of things but nothing we ever do changes His love, His faithfulness and His desire for connection with His creation. Even when we have failed ourselves, failed others, even God, His love for us is bigger than His disappointment in us.
Despite the consequences of their sin, God did not abandon them. No longer perfect, their life did go on. And so does ours.
Until next time, Kim
