It was a scandalous scene. The first man and the first woman committed the first sin. God was asking questions and Adam scrambled for an answer. Let’s tune into Genesis 3* and listen in.

God (calling to Adam): ⁹ Where are you?

Adam: ¹⁰ When I heard the sound of You coming in the garden, I was afraid because I am naked. So I hid from You.

God: ¹¹ Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree in the center of the garden, the very one I commanded you not to eat from?

Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent. And the serpent became the first one given a consequence. (vv. 12-14)

There’s a lot to unpack here. But I’d like to focus on Adam’s fear of being naked. It’s the first fear we find in scripture and it made Adam try to hide from God. However, prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed uninterrupted fellowship with God.

Sin and shame has a way of exposing our vulnerabilities. They make us want to hide too.

And yet, like God asked Adam, “Who told you that you were naked?”  I believe He is asking us, “Who told you that you couldn’t FLY? ” In other words, did someone cancel our flight in His grace?

If you have this whole FLYing thing down, you can ignore this question. But the rest of us need to give it some thought.

When I’m hesitant to rise higher in His grace, I need to confront the reason why.

Sometimes situations state life is too hard or I’ve been waiting too long to FLY.

Other times, blame tells me my failure to rise is someone else’s fault.

And condemnation says I don’t deserve to FLY at all.

I may not have listed your “who.” For some of us it could be a “what.”  Loss and trauma can shake us to our core and stop us in our tracks; even more reason to experience God love and His confirmation of our flight.

From a spiritual perspective, the only one who can cancel your flight is you. The only one who can cancel my flight is me. Our lack of contrition over sin, our refusal to ask for help or our resistance to the Lordship of Christ is a tragic trifecta of pride. But thankfully, grace reschedules us.

So let’s leave the no-FLY zone for good. And if we start to fall, I’m praying we won’t try to hide from God. He’s the only one whose rescue brings hope for the heart and joy to the soul.

*The Voice

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