I have been back again for the umpteenth time, studying the creation story recorded in Genesis. I often marvel at how the Holy Spirit leads me back there at the slightest question that comes in my heart.

A week ago, I got some news about someone who I had known for years and had suddenly just disappeared. No one knew her whereabouts, no one could trace her and no one could reach her. It really was so mysterious, particularly in this digital age were in. She also made no attempts to reach out and so over the years, memory of her diminished, only once in a while when she crosses my mind or that of a mutual friend.

The news I got a few days ago was that she got pregnant and had a baby and then all the pieces of the puzzle fit in. She blocked out her previous life to start afresh when she found out she was pregnant and really, no one can question her about her choice or decision to do that. But I noticed it had become a trend in our generation to run away from people when something life-changing happens. People up and leave and block out their past and I began to question it in my heart.

Why would people decide to run away from the people they love when tragedy strikes? and we could go on and on about how people are scared of being judged and misunderstood, but I really felt that there was something deeper and recently, I think that deeper was revealed as I was directed back to creation story.

After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, the bible said their eyes were open and they saw they were naked and ran to find covering for themselves to cover their nudity. Even after covering the nudity, they still hid from God who in that time, was the only friend they knew. So their hiding from God was not because they were naked, because they had now covered their nakedness with leaves, it was hiding from shame at the realisation of what they had done.

Shame only became known to them after they had fallen because they had been created in a pure state, all they knew, thought, said and did was in purity and once the knowledge of good and evil became known, that purity was tainted.

People hide when they realise there is shame, shame convinces people that you need to move away from the people you are known to and so it takes you into isolation which is exactly where the devil wants you, so he can send the rest of shame’s siblings to attack even more.

When God arrived at the scene and looked around and didn’t find His friends, He called out to them and asked “where are you?” and they responded saying they were afraid because they were naked and so they hid.

And watch God’s response, He says “Who told you that you were naked?“, He asked this because their purity was not suppose to know or comprehend what nakedness was, it was only after they had disobeyed and eaten the fruit that they realised the ‘evil’ in being naked.

After their blame games, the bible says that “The Lord God, made garments of skin for Adam and His wife and He clothed them”. God clothed their guilt and shame.

The community that people run from when they are ashamed are the ones who will clothe their guilt and shame, even after they might have reacted harshly. Running away and hiding is a trait of the fallen man. It was never meant to be so. God had/has always intended that we be naked people (open and vulnerable) in spite of shame and embarrassment.

You might be thinking “it is easy for you to say, you’ve not got pregnant outside of marriage or you’ve not failed in school multiple times, or you’ve never been addicted to something”, but I have things that I’ve been ashamed of and God is also altering my mind to see that running and hiding is counter-productive.

God wants us to come to Him, to our communities and families and bare it all out as messy as it might be. Don’t run and hide, you were never created to do that. Running and hiding is giving room for more involvement of the devil.

Just come as you are. Naked.