But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Devotion based on Genesis 3:9

Adam is hiding. He is hiding because he has just severed his perfect bond of trust with his God. As a result, sin has infected everything. One of its immediate effects is that Adam and Eve now have a dark impulse to hide from God.

In this moment, God has every right to abandon Adam and Eve. After seeing them betray his trust and throw away every single thing he has done for them, God has every reason to turn his back and walk away, never to return.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he calls out to Adam, “Where are you?” He asks the question not because he needs the information; he knows exactly where Adam is. Rather, he asks the question to let Adam know he is seeking him out and lay bare his guilt to make him fully aware of it. He does all this in love. He does all this to bring him to a full realization of his plight.

Even the most secular among us will almost always admit, “I am not the person I should be.” At some level, each of us, as human beings, has an uneasy sense that we have somehow wandered away from wherever it is we need to be.

Enter our Creator. Enter our Savior-God. Enter his Word. Enter his call to each of us—his call that says, “Where are you?”

He asks the question not because he needs the information; he knows exactly where we are. Rather, he asks the question to let us know he is seeking us out in order to lay bare our guilt and make us fully aware of it. He does all this in love. He does all this to bring us to a full realization of our plight. For it is then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you and I begin to grasp why we need Jesus Christ and what he has done on our behalf.

“Where are you?” the Word of God continues to call. For it is Jesus Christ who has come to seek and to save what was lost.

Prayer: