In her book, The Power of Not Yet, Donna Pisani helped me reframe something powerful in Genesis 3. There, God gave Adam and Eve eutopia. They lacked nothing. There were no fears, work, calories, or mosquitoes. They had everything and one rule to follow.
But they broke it.
If I gave my children everything and they disobeyed the singular rule I gave them, I would’ve lost it. I would’ve focused on and doled out irrational punishments addressing their behavior. But in Genesis 3, one simple question helps us see God was more concerned with His children’s shame than their sin.
“Who told you, you were naked?”
Pisani writes that God asked that question not in condemnation or to gloss over their disobedience, but instead to say,
“Who told you there was something wrong with you?”
The Lord knew before time began that Christ would restore what was broken in the Garden. He knew Jesus’ “abundant provision of grace and righteousness [would] reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17b), despite the trespass of another man. God knew that Jesus would, upon the cross, combat and redeem what we try to hide.
After thinking about this, I journaled my “Who told you’s.”
Who told me I was angry or too sensitive?
Who told me I’m not as smart or successful as so-and-so?
Who told me all the things that I try to cover up?
Adjacent to that list, I also wrote what my loving Father would say about those lies. I grounded them not only in Scripture, but what I’d tell my children about their “Who told you’s.” Tears formed as I not only thought about my kids believing lies contrary to who God created them to be, but Christ mourning ones I’ve believed, as well.
A few days later when I was jealous of someone at the gym, I heard the Spirit whisper,
“Who told you, you weren’t pretty”?
It’s embarrassing to admit that thought (especially at the tender age of old), but replacing lies with God’s truth happens when we stop hiding. And it’s how we step more fully into the arms and safety of our Father’s loving redemption, here and now.