From the account in Genesis 2:25 we read “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed” to the record in Genesis 3:21 “Unto Adam and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” something changed.

Though born with a natural innocence in regard to nakedness, it changed when Adam and Eve (while naked) ate of the forbidden fruit, when sin (the knowledge of good and evil) came through disobedience. They tried to cover their nakedness and hide from God, ashamed. We see the opposite of this in young children–at first. Though a toddler will shamelessly run naked through the house after a bath every adolescent demands a sturdy lock on their bedroom door.

One writer defines shame as the fear (and feeling) of abandonment replacing our base need for JOY! It’s an apt description of a basic truth about human nature, confirmed in the accounts listed in Genesis chapters 2 and 3. Adam and Eve had the paradise of Eden with the presence of God: the reality of constant and utter joy! Until… Though the fall/rebellion changed that for everyone, being made in the image of God does not mean that we have to live without or give up our joy.

In Joy, Shame and the Brain, Curt Thompson M.D. writes, “But we must recall that from a brain standpoint, at any given moment we are either moving generally toward or away from relationship with others or within ourselves. And to move away to any degree carries with it the potential risk of eventual abandonment. There is no more powerful siren call that warns of this than shame. The mind flourishes when in relationships of intentionally attuned connection. As it turns out, humans tend to experience no greater distress than when in relationships of intentional, unqualified abandonment–abandoned physically and left out of the mind of the other.”

If connection (belonging–even more than identity) is our basic emotional need (and I think it is) then we will do almost anything to fit in or belong, to avoid rejection or abandonment. My generation has adapted to the rapid pace at which technology has changed our world. Entire virtual communities have emerged to meet the basic human need for connection (and joy). The ‘cyber-artificial intelligence/social media mega-plexus’ can quickly imprison us, leaving us standing in the Garden of Gethsemane staring into the empty (abandoned) Garden of Eden, longingly.

The Bible’s message won’t, however, let us stay there. Just as the Lord made clothes for the first two people, Jesus was stripped naked, whipped and killed in order that we might be clothed in righteousness to return to garden from which we first came; the place believers will one day inhabit, by faith (once again). See you in church?

— The Rev. Kelly Wasberg