Makeshift Grace

Though the pastor was speaking, I can't say I was listening to him in church today. Instead, I was glued to something he had only briefly touched on at the very beginning of the sermon. I was stuck to what he said about the fig leaves Adam and Eve used to cover their nakedness. Let me try and convey all God showed me this morning.

So we know the story. Along with all of nature,Adam and Eve are God's creation. All is well in Paradise as the two people enjoy the perfect unity with their God and with one another until Satan deceives the two people under the disguise of a serpent. Adam and Eve can now distinguish good from evil, they realize their nakedness, hide from God, and attempt to cover up with fig leaves.

This is where it gets good.

Apparently, fig leaves can leave you pretty itchy if they touch your skin. Adam and Eve probably didn't think through this decision in their frantic search for anything to cover their nakedness before God saw them. There were probably an ample supply of fig leaves in the garden, because the trees would eventually grow new fig leaves were the others had been picked off. These leaves are symbolic of our human tendency to cover mistakes, insecurities, sin, pain, etc. They were not created to cover; the leaves did not do what Adam and Eve needed.

I doubt we'll see anyone running around in actual fig leaves today. But if fig leaves are anything we use to cover our mistakes, shortcomings, insecurities, etc, I'd say they're more common than we think: "If only I could lose that 15 pounds!", yelling at your children for not listening to you, wearing provocative clothing to get attention, controlling the atmosphere of the room you're in, watching pornography, obsessive health practices. Some of these things are more overtly wrong than others, but how exactly are these things, among many others, like fig leaves?

Fig leaves can be any action, thought, or perception we do/have to cover, make right, or cope; but these things do not suffice. Instead, they only work as a megaphone through which we both cry out our need for God and the refusal of His grace.

God had a different plan. Instead of providing itchy plants for Adam and Eve, He gave them clothes made from the skins of animals. Instead of the plentiful fig leaves the two had been using before, something had to die in order to cover Adam and Eve in a suffecient way. In God's eyes, nothing else would do. It was the only option, and it delighted Him to provide for them. God's reaction to Adam and Eve's sin is a prime example of His reaction toward our sin. When God found out what they did, He brought justice to all involved in the mess of sin and made garments of skin, and clothed Adam and Eve. Blood was shed, but a suffecient covering was made. All of this went against God's original design for humanity. He didn't originally write sin, death, and trials into the story. But His actions toward Adam and Eve in their sin shows me God's desire to be with us as close to normal as possible, even if that means detering from the original plan. He wants relationship with us that bad.

But what is normal anyway? I can say that the pattern of Christianity today is NOT what God sees as normal. Normal is God's original design for His relationship with humans and their relationship with one another. He designed both arenas of relationship to be bound in perfect unity and intimacy with Him. He provided for Adam and Eve and they walked with Him, enjoying one another, the presence of their God, and the beauty of His creation. Nothing, I can imagine, was done for the self but was instead directed toward God and one another. This was God's design. This was Paradise.

So Adam and Eve were given animal skins to cover their nakedness. They wanted to hide their mistake from God; but He already knew. After speaking with them and bring justice to the big mess, He supplied them with a covering. Just like Adam and Eve, I don't think we bring our mess to God. Instead, we act in rebellion to God's pattern and create our own coverings through the way we act, think, and feel. Like the itchy fig leaves, those coverings do not suffice to meet our need for grace, the true covering we need for our every mistake, insecurity, pain, and sin. We cover up with these outward actions so that we do not have to stand before God in our nakedness. We're shameful, embaressed, and regretful. We point fingers and attempt to shift the blame and focus to others. But really, God doesn't receive us in the way we deserve or in the way we perceive Hw ill. Instead of casting us away from His holy presence, He makes up for our mistakes so that He can walk with us again--for I believe that may be His only desire.

Can we really continue to rebel against our God's only desire, a desire that carries even blessings of joy, peace, comfort, guidance, protection, and provision for the ones who messed it all up in the first place? We think we're doing well in being dictators of cleanliness in our homes when we really need God's grace to cover our fear of losing control and thus becoming like the ones who've hurt us so deeply; we think we're doing well in pouring time into our appearance, being sure to always eat well and look decent when we really need God's grace to cover our insecurities, fear of martial unfaithfulness, and fear of being left alone yet again; we think we're doing well in gaining more and more knowledge when we really need God's grace to cover our reluctance to trust Him and wlak with the assurance of His Word in faith. We think we're doing well, but really, we're only wearing feeble fig leaves that fester uncomfortable itching. In reality, the leaves do not even cover at all. They're LEAVES. With one gust of wind, unexpected storm, or sudden change, the leaves drop and we're left naked before God and before man, pushing us to run from God and leaving us to franticly grasp for covering like Adam and Eve did that very first time. The leaves we use to hide from God and from man do not cover us like we so desperately need, and really, they only make that nakedness that much worse.

God desires life to go back to normal, where He walks with His people together as His people walk with one another. Our coverings just don't suffice to grant Him His desire, nor do they provide the Stuff of God we truly need. Only grace will do.

Does grace only cover? No! When accepted and allowed to spread into every dakr, dusty, broken, cob-webbed, aching, empty, stained part of your heart, it transforms. When one abandons all his or her self--the sin, fear, perceptions, habits, emotions, joys, wounds, dreams, hopes--and receives the grace of God into a surrendered being, God's original plan is restored. We can walk with Him in perfect unity and deepening intimacy and reflect this beauty in relationship with others. And when we walk in GOd's original design for humanity, everything changes.

Our makeshift coverings point to our need of God's grace to cover and to transform the parts of us we wish He didn't know about us and hope no one ever discovers. Why are we content to sneak around our need of God's grace in itchy fig leaves when God offers a suitable covering out of His desire to be with us? We must swollow our pride, declare our undying need of God's help, and walk in humility and receive His ready supply of covering and transformation.

Grace is the place where old becomes new, dark becomes light, Martha becomes Mary, Saul becomes Paul, Jacob becomes Israel, scarlet becomes snow==and there our God longs to be gracious. God knows you're hiding from Him int he bushes and already sees your covering of fig leaves. Step out, and receive His grace. You're safe, and in doing this, you grant the desire of your Creator.