Editor’s Note: Whether he walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, spoke to Moses through the burning bush, led the Israelites through the wilderness, or let his presence dwell in the Tabernacle, our God has always shown his desire to have a relationship with his people. These instances found in the Old Testament, amazing as they are, are only shadows of what would come when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Each meeting brought us a step closer on the journey to Bethlehem, to the arrival of our Savior.
Each week in our Advent reflections, we’ll take a look at one of the ways God drew near to his people leading up to Jesus’s birth.
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The Garden
Genesis 3:8-10 – “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ ”
I’ve often wondered what it was like to be Adam. First human being, first man, having the first woman alongside you for the ride. But more than that, I’ve often wondered what Adam’s relationship with the Lord was like and how I would have reacted if, on a cool, breezy, sunny day in that lush Garden all those centuries ago, God had suddenly decided to sidle up to me – as he did with Adam and Eve.
I would have been awestruck. Terrified. Diving for the nearest bush whether I was naked or not. I’d like to believe I would have realized the sheer magnitude and significance of that singular moment in time, but like Adam, I probably would have been ashamed, ignorant, or perhaps too self-involved to truly notice.
The Lord God’s stroll through the Garden that day marks the first time he was literally “with us.” Even though this remarkable appearance wasn’t in literal human form, God revealing himself to Adam and Eve as a sound – like that of an all-enveloping rushing wind – signified His desire to be with us, to share his masterpiece with us. After all, why would He have created us if he didn’t desire our companionship?
It's also important to remember that the Lord God, in all his infinite, boundless power and glory, could have lost patience with humankind right then and there, choosing to snuff out Adam and Eve and begin anew with more compliant, reverent models. But he didn’t. That incredible act of ceaseless love brings to mind the lyrics of an old hymn my childhood church used to sing quite often:
“He speaks and the sound of His voice, is so sweet the birds hush their singing. And the melody that he gave to me, within my heart is ringing … And He walks with me, and He talks with me. And He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other, has ever, known!”
How magnificent is that? The Lord God of Adam and Eve still walks and talks with us today, and he does so because of another miraculous, selfless choice. He opted to come to Earth as an innocent, pure baby; experience all of the same highs and lows Adam and Eve endured; then sacrifice himself on the cross for their sins and those committed by every single human being since that day in the Garden. He opted to declare, for all to hear, that he desires us forever and without exception.
So as we march headfirst into the usual hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, take a moment – take a few moments – to remember why the Lord God did all that. He didn’t have to. He wanted to. He wants to walk with us, to talk with us, and to continually, forever call us his own. And that’s something worth singing about.