hen I was a kid, I loved to play hide-and-seek. My older brother and I would play it for hours, and we learned to get very creative when finding a place to hide. I remember one time finding what I thought was the perfect hiding place—so perfect my brother never found me. At least that’s what I thought.
After hiding for more than forty-five minutes, I eventually decided to come out of my hiding place and gracefully let him surrender and admit the fact that his younger brother was the best hider. That is, until I found him watching TV in the living room. He wasn’t even looking for me. Cheap trick.
I’m a lot older now, but I still play that kids’ game. My little girls love to play hide-and-seek, especially my youngest, Brynnan. Except she doesn’t fully understand the game. When I get done counting to ten, I shout, “Ready or not, here I come!” And it never fails that I find her facing a corner, standing in full view, covering her face with her hands. She can’t see me, so she assumes I can’t see her either.
Hide-and-seek is a game of pursuit. The rules are simple: Someone hides. Someone pursues. Believe it or not, the game of hide-and-seek has been around for a long time, actually since the beginning of time. The first couple to call earth home played the game. Except, for them, it wasn’t a game at all. It was real life. And the stakes were extremely high. Their choice to hide set in motion a pursuit, not only of them but of all humankind—a pursuit by God.
As you become a woman, it’s important that you clearly understand this: you’re being pursued—and it’s God who’s pursuing you. Ever since sin number one was committed on earth, God has been in pursuit of every person who’s walked this planet. And he’s pursuing you because he wants a real relationship with you.
In the last chapter, I said that the real you, the person God made you to be, is defined by three important things: being God’s mirror, goodness, and beauty.
When you read that list, did you want to run to God or hide from him? Were you ashamed because you haven’t lived up to God’s expectations? Maybe you thought, God made me to bear his image, but all I do is make him look bad. Or God made me to be good, but I’ve done so many bad things. Or I’m so ugly God couldn’t possibly love me or think I’m beautiful.
Feeling like you’ve let God down or you’re not good enough for him can make you ashamed—of how you look or what you’ve done or haven’t done. It can make you believe you don’t deserve to have a relationship with him. That shame can make you want to hide from him. But you can’t hide from God. And you shouldn’t feel like you need to.
Your existence, value, and purpose as well as God’s plan for your life are important enough for him to pursue you.
Let’s check out the story of the first humans who walked planet earth and connect the dots to see how their story set in motion God’s pursuit of you. The Bible tells us in Genesis that the Garden of Eden was an awesome place to live. A modern-day Garden of Eden would be like having a closet full of the best clothes and the cutest shoes, never having a bad hair day, always getting good grades, and hitting the snooze button as much as you want, all wrapped into one. Oh, and there’d be no sadness or murder or insecurity or self-hatred—there’d be no pain at all. In short, Adam and Eve had everything they could ever want and more. God provided for their every need. But he had one rule: “Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” However, they did exactly what God said not to do.
The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal GOD had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’ ”
The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate. (Genesis 3:1–6, MSG)
Adam and Eve didn’t realize it at that moment, but their choice to disobey God and buy the lie that Satan sold them set in motion a ripple effect that has continued to this day: sin. Their sin separated us from God. And the pursuit began.
Imagine you’re standing on a beach holding a glass of water. Just as you’re about to take a drink, a large wave rushes over your feet, you lose your balance, and you spill your water into the ocean. Is it possible to reach down and refill your empty glass with exactly the same water that was spilled? Of course not. No matter how many times you tried, you’d never be able to get that exact glass of water back. You’d never be able to return it to its original state. In the garden, Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God had the same effect as you spilling your water in the ocean. That first sin completely washed away God’s perfect world and humankind’s perfect fellowship with him. We can never restore that relationship to the way it was. But, luckily, God can.
When they heard the sound of GOD strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from GOD.
GOD called to the Man: “Where are you?”
He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.” (Genesis 3:8–10, MSG)
Why do you think Adam and Eve tried to hide from God?
As the story goes, after bringing sin into the world, Adam and Eve “realized they were naked” (NIV). Though this is definitely not a funny story, I do find it kind of humorous that two adults covered by nothing more than a few leaves from a tree actually thought they could hide from God. Imagine how silly they must’ve looked to all those animals, running around naked in the garden, frantically looking for a leaf and a place to hide. This was the first game of hide-and-seek that was ever played. But did Adam and Eve really believe they could succeed in hiding from God?
It’s as if they were playing hide-and-seek like my daughter Brynnan, when she stands in a corner and hides her face. Adam and Eve assumed that since they couldn’t see God, God couldn’t see them either. But he could.
Adam and Eve’s response—to run and hide—is so similar to how a lot of people respond today. We mess up. We ignore it, deny it, or try to cover it up. We hope that God will just forget about it or that maybe he didn’t even see our sin at all. But make no mistake—God is an all-knowing God. There’s nothing you can hide from him—and nothing he’s not willing to forgive. As God is making you into the woman he wants you to be, you need to understand that he sees all and knows all. Nothing—absolutely nothing—gets past him.
In the Garden of Eden, what got Adam and Eve in trouble? Was it:
Satan?
the fruit?
rules?
their choice to sin?
After their choice to disobey God, look at what Adam and Eve did next.
Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves. (Genesis 3:7, MSG)
God’s original plan for people didn’t involve clothing. That’s a pretty weird thought for most people because we’re so into our namebrand clothes we wouldn’t know what to do without them. (But not having to wear clothes would cut down on the time it takes to get ready in the morning, wouldn’t it!) Clothes weren’t necessary until Adam and Eve sinned and understood what being naked was. Then they thought they could adequately clothe themselves without God’s help. But they were wrong. They committed the first fashion blunder on planet earth.
Did you notice what kind of clothing the Bible says Adam and Eve made? Genesis says their attempt at fashion design was nothing more than “makeshift clothes.”
Just about the last thing we’d do these days is make our own clothes. But, just like Adam and Eve, we do try to create our own ways of solving problems without asking God for help. The important point to grab here is not necessarily the type of clothing they made but the idea that whenever we attempt to replace God’s plan with our own, the end result will never last and never satisfy. It’ll only be a temporary and inferior substitute.
Adam and Eve’s first response, rather than running to God, was to run to the world for a quick fix. Isn’t this a typical response for us too?
| Your Temptation: | Your Makeshift Clothes: |
There are overwhelming circumstances. |
You turn to a drink. |
Temptations seem too difficult to control. |
You cut yourself. |
Everyone else seems to be doing it. |
You become sexually active. |
You want to be popular. |
You try to become It. |
You want his attention. |
You do whatever’s necessary to get it. |
I still remember meeting Cassidy in the hallway after speaking to the student body in her Delaware school. We talked, I gave her my e-mail address, and she said she’d stay in touch. The following week she wrote, “I am sleeping with my boyfriend.” She told me she couldn’t remember the last time she’d read her Bible or even talked with God, and she even admitted that in recent months she’d been exploring the neopagan religion Wicca.
Cassidy was hiding. She didn’t know it, but in her attempt to cover up the guilt of her sex life, she was running from God by clothing herself in a Wiccan religion and a sexual relationship, both of which contradicted God’s Word.
Adam and Eve responded to their choice to sin just like Cassidy. And the game of hide-and-seek began. But what they didn’t know was that there was no way they could ever win. They believed that their makeshift clothing would hide the reality of their sin. But whenever we try to take matters into our hands and rely on the world’s help, we always lose.
• Are you hiding behind an inferior substitute now?
• Is God asking something of you that you’re not willing to do?
• Are you embracing something in life that’s not pleasing to God?
• Are you in a relationship that’s not honoring God?
• Do you have a habit or addiction that’s pulling you farther away from God?
God has created you for a specific reason. He has a plan for your life. Attempting to find and live out this plan on your own will leave you with nothing more than an inferior substitute that’ll eventually fail you, and you’ll find yourself running from one leaf of life to the next. Are you wearing makeshift clothes? God wants to dress you in something much better.
After Adam and Eve’s initial sin, God could’ve chosen any number of options:
• End time on earth.
• Kill Adam and Eve.
• Start over with new humans.
• Remove every human’s ability to choose.
• Leave Adam and Eve to run around naked until their rears were sunburned.
Once sin occurred, God knew it was only a matter of time before it would happen again. And since humans had free will to choose, God also knew that if he allowed life to continue on earth, every human would have the ability to choose not to love him in return. He could have said, “These humans will never get it right! I should just destroy them before it gets worse.” But look at verses 8–10 again and see what God did instead:
When they heard the sound of GOD strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from GOD.
GOD called to the Man: “Where are you?”
He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.” (Genesis 3:8–10, MSG)
What did God do? He went looking for them. He pursued them. Even though they failed him, he still went after them. And then look at what he did next:
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)
He didn’t just pursue them. Once God found them, he clothed them. And he didn’t just clothe them. Look at how he clothed them—in skin. Some translations of the Bible use the word leather here. The point is, Adam and Eve failed God miserably, and what did he do? He didn’t just clothe them with any marked-down, half-price, last year’s look. He dressed them in the finest clothing of the day. Though they deserved to die, God took care of them by making real clothes to replace their makeshift ones. I guess you could say God was the first designer on earth. What God did for Adam and Eve has everything to do with what he wants to do in your life. One thing we all have in common with Adam and Eve is that we’re all sinners. God knows this. But regardless of your imperfections, God wants to capture you and clothe you in his finest by making you into the woman he knows you can be, not a woman who settles for an inferior substitute.
Imagine how my daughter would feel if she ran off to hide and I didn’t go after her. It’d probably break her heart, wouldn’t it? But I’d never do that to her, because I love her. I’d never abandon her and treat her that way. The same is true with God.
After the first sin was committed, God knew what was in store. He knew that once sin entered time on earth, life would never be the same.
But an all-knowing God saw the bigger picture. He saw the potential in every one of us. Even though humanity’s choice to sin broke God’s heart and separated us from him, it didn’t separate us from his love. God loved humankind so much that he was willing to allow life on earth to continue. Rather than destroy all people, he set into motion a plan that could bring us back to him. The Bible is the story of God’s pursuit of us all. This pursuit brought God to earth in his Son, Jesus. Jesus’s perfect life, death, and resurrection make it possible for us to be captured by God and forgiven of our sins, if we choose.
The day you were born into this sinful world and drew your first breath, God began his pursuit of you. He’s pursuing you every day because he sees you for the woman you can be—he sees past your sin to the real you. Sure, he knows you’re not perfect. He knows you’ll fail him sometimes. But he also knows that his plan for you is far greater than your ability to mess up that plan.
Did you really let this info soak into your brain? If not, listen up. In spite of everything you’ve ever done wrong, God’s still on your side. He’s pursuing you. You’re so important to him that in spite of the junk in your past, he has an awesome future for you. Just like the two naked runners in Genesis, you’ve probably failed God. And what does he think about that? He says, “I’m more interested in making you into the woman I can use tomorrow than I am in the woman you were yesterday”
Remember Cassidy’s story a few pages back? I told her she didn’t have to keep running. I told her that God knew about every choice she’d ever made and still loved her. I told Cassidy that even though she’d messed up in her past, God was still pursuing her and wanted a relationship with her. Cassidy stopped running that day, and she asked God to change her life.
Are you running? Maybe you are and you don’t even know it—running from who you are, who you can be, or who you know God wants you to be. Eventually you’ll run out of steam, out of breath, and out of places to hide. And then what’ll you do?
The pursuit began in the Garden of Eden, and it continues to this day, in Cassidy’s life and in yours.
To be captured, you have to be willing to trust God. To fully trust him, you must first be honest with yourself.
Can you remember a time when you’ve prayed a prayer and invited Jesus into your heart? Romans 10:13 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” If you haven’t, you can do that right now. Stop and pray this prayer:
Dear God,
I believe in you. I believe your Son Jesus died for me and came back to life. I want to give you my heart right now. Forgive me of all of my past mistakes, and take over my life. Right now I give my life to you. Amen.
If you just prayed this prayer, you’ve now made the most important decision of your life.
the Truth
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Just as God didn’t turn his back on Adam and Eve and Cassidy, he won’t turn his back on you. Even though he knew your potential to sin, God still created you. His love for you is so great, he was willing to take that gamble. Before you were even born, God saw you as the woman you’re becoming now. He wrote your life story before you even started living it. And now he’s working every day to bring you into a close relationship with him. The question is not “Is he pursuing you?” The question is “Will you let him capture you?”
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Are you running? Be honest. Real change can’t happen until there’s real honesty.
Is there something in your life keeping you from accepting God’s pursuit and giving him a chance? Write a prayer now asking God to show you if there’s anything in your life keeping him from capturing you.
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