We were created to be naked gardeners. (Dr. Rick McKinley)
When God created man and woman and placed them in the garden, they had everything they needed – which, at the time, didn’t include clothing. There were no thorns and no poison oak, and the weather, like the rest of creation, must have been “very good.” Most important of all, there was no shame. That all ended when they bit into the fruit.
That evening when God came for his nightly walk with the pinnacle of his creation, they were hiding, afraid to be seen by the one whose hands had formed every curve of their bodies.
Shame and fear, covering and hiding: nonexistent and unnecessary before sin, but God offers answers.
Clothing is God’s good answer to our nakedness until the New Creation restores the perfect, unadorned beauty of creation.
Prayer is God’s good answer to our shame and fear. In prayer, we can again stand naked before God, without shame, without fear, completely seen, intimately known, ultimately loved by our Creator. Perfect love drives out all fear.