Where Are You?
It is a piercing question from God:
“Where are you?”
Immediately after rejecting God and sinning against him, Adam and Eve hear God approaching in the garden. The one they’ve betrayed is about to step around the corner, so they hide themselves among the trees. And in Genesis 3:9 we are given the very first question from God in all of Scripture: “And the LORD God called to the man,
‘Where are you?’”
It is not as though God was actually confused as to their whereabouts. He made all things by his word and was currently sustaining their very breath at that moment. He knew their location quite well. But nonetheless, he engages us personally. He lowers himself to deal with us on a level we can understand. To draw out the heart of Adam and give him a chance to reveal himself, God called out asking,
“Where are you?”
It cuts me because Adam is hiding in shame, and I know what it feels like to hide from God. It is that inner gut panic of knowing you’ve just done something foolish and you sense your foolishness and worthlessness is about to be displayed somehow. God knows. I know. Everybody is going to know. In a word: shame.
Our default response, like Adam, is to hide. Of course, our strategies are a bit different. We don’t hop behind a tree in our yard. But we’ve got sophisticated emotional walls that we jump behind. We try to isolate, bury our head in the sand (aka Netflix), or layer on more busyness. But they never cure the shame. We are just hiding like Adam.
But God is not a God of avoidance. He is not a God of playing along with the lie. He is not a God of beating around the bush, if you will. He cuts straight through the lies by calling us to recognize the false hiding places we run to:
“Where are you?”
In other words, “Come to me, Adam. Don’t think that hiding will make this any better. Come out into my light. I’m not here to shame you, but to heal you. I’m not here to cast you aside for your foolishness but to call you alongside me. I’m not here to scoff at your nakedness, but to cloth you with forgiveness and honor.”
I have little doubt that in your current hiding, you will be most helped by coming to God. He is certainly calling you right now. “Where are you?” Recognize that you are perhaps hiding in some way. What if you fully made yourself available to God? What if you brought to him your shame in all its panic and fear?
The best reason we have to come out of hiding is because God didn’t just come to Adam and Eve walking in the cool of the day. He also came in Jesus Christ. And rather than hiding behind a tree like Adam, Jesus took our shame onto himself and was nailed to the front of a treeーout in the open on a cross for all to see. He was displayed in shame for us. He was mocked and spat on for us. He was reviled for us. So if the one who is calling you out of hiding was willing to go to those lengths to heal you, wouldn’t it be good and relieving to come out of hiding? What if your soul was fully known and fully loved? What kind of man could God make you into if you answered him and came out of hiding?
About The Author: Caleb Barrows
Caleb Barrows grew up in central Ohio before attending Taylor University (2006-2010) to study International Missions. His dream to be a missionary however was shifted towards pastoral ministry and preaching which landed him at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (2011-2014).
He worked for four years in Ohio and Michigan helping start new churches before moving down to central Kansas in the fall of 2019. Caleb now lives in Lyons with his wife Nicole and their champion of a little boy named Zion. Caleb loves playing any and every sport or nerdy board games with friends. He'll also jump at any opportunity to go hiking or sit lazily somewhere reading a book.
We’re excited to announce Caleb as the 2024 Camp for Men Featured Speaker!
