#512. Thinking you’re naked.
Apr 1st by JonI don’t want to brag, but I’m pretty awesome at applying band-aids. And make no mistake, there is an art. Because if you go too quickly and unpeel them the wrong way, they stick to themselves and you end up with a wadded up useless mess instead of the Little Mermaid festooned bandage your daughter so desperately wants to apply to a boo boo that may in fact be 100% fictional.
Half of the injuries I treat at the Acuff house are invisible or simply wounds of sympathy. My oldest daughter will scrape her knee and my 3-year old, realizing the band aid box is open will say, “Yo dad, I’d like to get in on that too. What do you say we put one on, I don’t know, my ankle. Yeah, my ankle, let’s pretend that’s hurt.”
But sometimes the cuts are real, like the day my 5-year old got a scrape on her face playing in the front yard. I rushed in the house and returned with a princess bandage. As I bent down to apply it to her forehead, her eyes filled up with tears and she shrunk back from me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I don’t want to wear that band-aid.” She replied.
“Why? You have a cut, you need a band-aid.” I said.
“I’ll look silly.” She answered.
Other than her sister and her mom, there was no one else in the yard. None of her friends were over, cars were not streaming passed our house and watching us play, the world was pretty empty at that moment. But for the first time I can remember, she felt shame. She had discovered shame. Somewhere, some how, this little 5 year old had learned to be afraid of looking silly. If I was smarter, if I had been better prepared for the transition from little toddler to little girl, I might have asked her this:
“Who told you that you were silly?”
I didn’t though. That question didn’t bloom in my head until much later and I didn’t understand it until I saw God ask a similar question in Genesis 3:11. To me, this is one of the saddest and most profoundly beautiful verses in the entire Bible. Adam and Eve have fallen. The apple is a core. The snake has spoken. The dream appears crushed. As they hide from God under clothes they’ve hastily sewn together, He appears and asks them a simple question:
“Who told you that you were naked?”
There is hurt in God’s voice as He asks this question, but there is also a deep sadness, the sense of a father holding a daughter that has for the first time ever, wrapped herself in shame.
Who told you that you were not enough?
Who told you that I didn’t love you?
Who told you that there was something outside of me you needed?
Who told you that you were ugly?
Who told you that your dream was foolish?
Who told you that you would never have a child?
Who told you that you would never be a father?
Who told you that you weren’t a good mother?
Who told you that without a job you aren’t worth anything?
Who told you that you’ll never know love again?
Who told you that this was all there is?
Who told you that you were naked?
I don’t know when you discovered shame. I don’t know when you discovered that there were
people that might think you are silly or dumb or not a good writer or a husband or a friend. I don’t know what lies you’ve been told by other people or maybe even by yourself.
But in response to what you are hearing from everyone else, God is still asking the question, “Who told you that you were naked?”
And He’s still asking us that question because we are not.
In Christ we are not worthless.
In Christ we are not hopeless.
In Christ we are not dumb or ugly or forgotten.
In Christ we are not naked.
Isaiah 61:10 it says:
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.
The world may try to tell you a thousand different things today. You might close this post and hear a million declarations of what you are or who you’ll always be, but know this.
As unbelievable as it sounds and as much as I never expected to type this sentence on this blog:
You are not naked.
Comments
this is pretty sweet, man. you’re a good writer. God bless.
I had to post this on my blog… just something about they way you asked…”Who told you that there was something outside of me that you needed?”
I wish everyone I knew could comprehend this message…
Truly amazing Jon… You can tell the difference when you write something good and funny versus when you write something divinely inspired??
You are making a difference.
God bless-
Amanda
Thanks for this. I sent this on to women’s ministry leaders who sent it on to their leadership… and so on. One of the groups, for women who were sexually abused as children, “happened” to be dealing with the issue of shame that evening. God used this to bring them several steps closer to healing.
Blessings to you…
this is awesome.
thank you.
Just Beautiful. You are a blessing!
I love this. Thank you.
*tear*
Someone in my church told me….
absolutely beautiful
Jon, it is on my heart to say that you are gifted by God as a communicator. continue speaking His heart. it’s needed.
kaylene, i pray you feel the acceptance and joyyyyy of your heavenly Father…who is just as real and whose love is just as strong.
krystal, i pray that prov 3:5-6 would be yours. that you would experience grace and peace along with wisdom like james 3:17 talks about. please know you’re loved.
anonymous who was suffered a painful reminder through this post… your burdens are real. i pray that God would be close to your soul tonight. really. i pray you would know that he is the God who sees you….like hagar expressed in genesis 16 when she was going through darkness. her story is one of my favorites…even though there are parts that are hard to understand. may He lift you in some way some day that no one else will be able to understand.
This is beautiful. I’m not a Christian, but I like your blog, this especially.
Thank You God for the gift of Your grace through our savior Jesus Christ, grace that cannot be earned and cannot be lost. Thank You for speaking through Jon.
I. LOVE. THIS.
You are a preacher.
Great Words
Very Interesting!!! “You’re not what you think you are but what GOD says you are”!!!!
I love this. Thank you! Beautifully written.
Perfect.
I needed this thank you.
I needed to read this so much. Thank you.
I had never thought of that question in this light. Thanks for posting this!
The very best things that has ever happened to me is that God has removed my shame. The shame bought on by abuse and bad choices. I’m grateful to have a new way to express this to others.
I am not naked!
Truly beautiful.
Wow!!!! i read this on a link from someone's facebook, and you have no idea what this means to me today!!!! Wow God used you today to save my life
Thank you. I needed that, and I don't even know you. Funny how God works sometimes 
great message!
however, i like being naked.
i wonder how it preaches to nudists?
I come back to this post whenever someone or something has made me feel naked. Thank you.
Bookmarked this. I'll be re-reading as needed.
Thanks.
I thought I had read all of these – and maybe I have – but wow. This came at a critical time for me. God is good. Thanks Jon.
I wasn't even feeling naked today and this still made me cry.
Awesome words, thank you!
Hit the spot.
Wow thank you for sharing. Just what I needed tonight…
Thank you, beyong words.
make that "beyond".
I used this blog to teach my students tonight. What a beautiful reminder that no matter what the world says of us, our Father loves us dearly. Thank you.
I'm a cutter. I've been kicked out of my house. My siblings hate me and wish I were dead….as has been stated before by my 4 out of 5 of my siblings (all younger than me). I have nothing. I am nothing. And I really don't know how else to handle what little life I have left. If I choose to keep it, that is.
[...] the author, puts in some essays that make you think. I was reading one called something like “Thinking You’re Naked.” If you don’t go read that article, let me paraphrase a little. In this essay, Acuff [...]