GOD ASKS
“Then the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?'» (Genesis 3:9).
One afternoon I accidentally slammed a door on my little friend ‘s fingers. Blood quickly began pouring out of the wound and there was a big commotion at home, I started to feel a guilt I hadn’t known before. I felt I deserved the worst punishment. I went inside a closet and started crying inconsolably. A few minutes later, I heard the voice of my father, who had just come home from work, asking, «Cachi, where are you?»
He found me curled up in the darkness, suffocating in the heat, the tears and pain of a six-year-old heart couldn’t stand so much anguish. And, to my surprise, he hugged me.
When I left the room, I saw my little friend’s condition. We went to the clinic so he could receive treatment. I suffered from seeing him that way, from seeing the result of my haste and mistake. But before that, I had been comforted by my father. Before facing the consequences, I had been given hope.
The same thing happened with Adam and Eve that day in Eden. Just as Ellen White says, «before they heard of the life of toil and sorrow which must be their portion, or of the decree that they must return to dust, they listened to words that could not fail to give them hope» (Patriarchs and Prophets, ch. 4, p. 65).
The knowledge of evil and the tendency to sin are both inherent in our nature from that very first time, but it’s wonderful that, before pronouncing the sentence, God reminds us there’s hope and victory in the end.
Thousands of years later, God asks us the same question. I don’t know if the question finds you hiding in the darkness of sin, or freely walking about in the light of peace He offers you for having taken His hand. But the question tells us of a God who not only creates, but who from the beginning of the world takes the initiative to speak and wants to restore His relationship with us. In the midst of our justifications for sin, His call of hope is always there. How will we answer today?
