Strange Flesh

 "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked".    Genesis 3:7.

There's nothing like it... 

Declaration of something that is really worth knowing.

So, following that train of thought....

A few days ago, I was having one of those conversations I really enjoy - exchanging recollections with a work colleague about the movies we really like, when I mentioned a favourite film that the other person hadn't seen. That took the conversation into a higher gear, because there's nothing like telling someone just enough of a good story to get them wanting to know more - that point where they just have to see it, hear it or read it for themselves... all because of your enthusiasm for the material.

Truly knowing something is not only good, it's essential, on the road to recovery or refreshment. The problem becomes when we'd rather fabricate a lie to bury the truth.

Adam and Eve buried the disclosure that came to them. Their estate became shameful, as Whitfield most certainly correctly noted, not because they were externally unclothed (they had already known that), but 'because they had become naked of soul' - what was within them had become as sour as rotting flesh, and they witnessed this in the suddenly painful disconnect of the radiance of paradise.

 They had to get away.

The answer wasn't in fig leaves, or even in the temporary garb God would give them to exit the garden. The answer came in a story - that from amidst the very mire and shame they now inhabited, a vanquisher would arise who would liberate their children from their misery.

Mankind, of course, soon denied it. They sought to allow a far grubbier, heinous rendition of the tale to magnify their slavery (Genesis 6), and when that was stemmed, they tried yet again by buying in to the notion that they could enslave heaven to their chaos (Genesis 11). That's what happens when lies seek to drown what's beyond ourselves, but the true story proved far greater, deeper, richer, than we could imagine, and slowly but surely, it began to play out its exquisite reality amongst us (Hebrews 11).

When you share something rare and enthralling with someone else - a stark truth or a deep revelation - it conveys something that can truly change what we are and the direction of our lives. The truth God shares in that moment of our deepest despair (Genesis 3:15) has set the course of existence for eternity. If we 'hear' that story - if we allow its circumference and panacea authority in shaping what we are by becoming our hope, then we enter into a tale in which dragons are truly slain, maidens are truly won, and kingdoms are forever forged.

There's nothing like it.