A month ago, we took our kids to Disney World.
If you asked them to describe how they felt walking through the Magic Kingdom, they would have said:
“Happy, excited, thrilled, ecstatic, joyful, loud, boisterous, energetic, overwhelmed with laughter, etc.”
Their feelings would have exploded in a torrent of silliness and smiles.
I mean, look at what my three-year-old nephew did all on his own when I bought him a sword at The Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
That’s what you do when you experience something amazing, you express your emotions like a hurricane.
And yet, in Genesis 2, there is only one emotion we get from Adam and Eve.
They are in a land far greater than Disney World. They are in a perfect place, surrounded by perfect beauty. They are in a fresh paradise. They should be “happy, excited, thrilled, etc.”
But there’s only one thing we are told. One word we are given about how they felt.
In Genesis 2:25, we are told, “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
That is how powerful shame was. Of all the things that could be said about this place called Eden, the only emotional peek we are given into Adam and Eve is that they felt no shame.
What a beautiful picture of God.
The giver and creator of a place with no shame.
The owner and protector of a place with no shame.
The father and farmer of a place with no shame.
I don’t know what your source of shame is right now. I don’t know what demon dragged its way into the New Year with you, refusing to let you believe you’ll ever be anything but divorced or unemployed or alone.
Ashamed.
It’s a powerful thing, but in Genesis 2 we are reminded we serve a God that will always be more powerful. A God who calls us into a relationship, where like Adam and Eve, we can feel no shame.
