Don't Look at Me!

Hiding from God’s Grace


When Shadow does something wrong, like scratching a piece of furniture or marking that particular spot along the baseboard, she knows it. She’s doesn’t experience repentance and contrition, though. With the knowledge of her wrongdoing comes one thought: to not get caught.

If you live with cats, you’ve seen this yourself. First you see the feline happily scratching away, claws buried luxuriously in the tweed of a sofa or the leather of your favorite recliner. Next comes the realization that they aren’t alone, that there’s another presence in the room. Then starts the frantic pulling as the cat attempts to flee the face of punishment. Of course, if your cat companion is like Shadow, progress is impeded by an errant claw stuck in the tempting fabric, like a child with a fist caught in the proverbial cookie jar. Nevertheless, once free from the scene of the crime, Shadow bolts for a spot under the bed or behind the couch, certain she’s about to be—horror of horrors!—scolded.

It's both amusing and frustrating to watch a cat run from you that way. If the crime is severe, you have to turn the house upside-down to make the feline face the consequences so you can get back to cuddling. When the guilt is imaginary, as it sometimes is, you laugh and wish the cat would come out of hiding so you could show her everything is all right. The cat’s instinct, though, works against you.

I don’t know if you remember, but the Bible tells a similar story…right in Genesis 3.

“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’” (Genesis 3:8-10)

The story of the temptation and fall of Even and Adam shows immediate consequences. They now feel they have a reason to fear God, and they hide from Him. Of course, this was no imagined sense of guilt. Adam and Eve had broken God’s one commandment, and they were busted. They deserved punishment, and they knew it. God knew it even better than they did. He did punish them, by driving them from the garden. Yet, if you read on, you can see that God was already setting the stage for His grace to pour out on humanity. He told the snake,

“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

Notice that this seed of a promise comes before God speaks His curse over Adam and Eve. And that brings us to the point. When the guilty pair hid from God’s punishment, they also hid from God’s grace.

When Shadow hides from my “punishment,” she also hides herself from my love. This is sad when she deserves a reprimand, but all the more tragic when there’s no punishment coming at all.

Like Shadow, we’re sometimes so intent on hiding our sins from God—or hiding ourselves from God—that we never give him the chance to pour out that love and grace He sent us through Jesus. At the very least, we make Him turn the house and garden upside-down to find us!

How are you hiding from God’s grace today?
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