Knowing and Being Known: A Devotion for February 23, 2016

            Carrying on a little bit from yesterday’s post, I find the story of the fall into sin fascinating. There’s so much there in this short account from Genesis 3, but the thing I’m thinking about this morning is Adam and Eve’s very first reaction after they had eaten the fruit: “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (3:7). Notice that? The first effect of sin that’s listed is that Adam and Eve hid from each other. A few verses later Adam says that he was afraid because he was naked. What’s to be afraid of?

            Once he had fallen, Adam feared being seen and known as he really was. His sin was a shame to him that he didn’t want anyone—neither his wife nor God Himself—to see. He didn’t want his secret thoughts to be known.

            Humans still play those games. We meet new people and we do the dance of putting our best foot forward. And once the deception is started, it’s a long time until it’s ended. The world is full of stories: “If I’d known he had a problem with alcohol…, if I’d known she was married before…, if I’d known…” The implication is the same, if we’d known at the outset, we would have been more careful in entering the relationship. Maybe we wouldn’t have taken the risk at all. So, we minimize our less attractive aspects and pretend to be better than we are, and we shield and protect ourselves from truths yet to be revealed by keeping a part of our selves away from others.

            But in Christ, we have the promise of knowing and being known (1 Cor. 13:8-12). That starts with the reality of forgiveness and restoration. The sin and the secret shame is gone in Christ, and that means we have the real possibility of opening ourselves to one another. And there’s such joy in discovering the depths of another person and being discovered in return! There’s honesty there and depth and beauty and connection.

            I’m thinking about this because it’s become clear to me that I value relationships a lot. I want to be able to speak the truth in love—about myself and about another. I want to have friends with whom I can reveal my heart of hearts and un-hide myself in loving honesty and to whom I can speak truthfully, naming them as they really are. It’s hard to do that when you’re always evaluating another in terms of their usefulness in advancing your own purposes, that is, when you’re most concerned about the accumulation and maintenance of power. It’s precisely the sinful wielding of power that strips us of our honesty and causes us to protect ourselves from one another.