Lent Day 6: Compassionate Covering

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Genesis 3:21

As I've been reading through scripture today, I asked God to allow me to see each passage with fresh eyes; to bring newness out of something I've read previously. God is so faithful to keep the promise: Ask anything in My name... I asked for new and He delivered.

I know I've both read through and also heard numerous messages on creation and the fall of man from Genesis 3, but I don't ever remember reading about "God making garments for Adam and Eve and clothing them". As I've come to learn about myself, I probably skipped over that sentence and dismissed it as some insignificant part of the story. I'm being schooled by God that NO sentence in His Word is ever insignificant or just added as story filler.

When I read 3:21 this time, I stopped ... and read it again and again. It captured my attention. I don't know if the thought that ran through my head is accurate, theologically speaking, but I couldn't help but be struck by this question: Did God make the garments for Adam and Eve, after speaking forth the curses caused by their rebellion, out of complete compassion for them, knowing that they now understood shame and nakedness and required covering? Did His justice require judgment but His compassion give way to covering?

I saw a piece of God's heart in this passage that put parenting on another level: I AM had to punish rebellion, especially after giving a very specific instruction about not eating from that tree, but he didn't leave them walking away, heads hung low, from his rebuke. He followed up his discipline, as harsh as it was, with a gift of ultimate grace ... he compassionately covered them.




Disclaimer: Although Lent is a period of 40 days, technically it covers 46 days, but Sundays are excluded because they are considered mini-celebrations leading up to Easter. So even though I should be technically writing about Lent Day 5, my reading program stays in line with the countdown to Easter, so it's Lent Day 6.