Where Are You?

I remember hearing over an intercom, some years ago, an announcement for the parents of a small child to meet their child at the security office. The announcer explained that their child was looking for them but couldn't find them because they were lost! I chuckled at that announcement (and still do) wondering if the announcer had decided to put that spin on the situation or if the child really thought his parents were lost.

After Adam and Eve had sinned, we're told, in Genesis 3:8-9, that Adam and Eve heard the sound of God walking along in the garden during the cool of the day - but instead of walking out to meet God, they hid themselves. We're then told that God called out and said, "Where are you?"

Doesn't it seem odd that God had to ask "Where are you?" God, who is omniscient, asks a question that appears to indicate that he did not know where Adam was!

Could it be that Adam and Eve's sin really did somehow keep God from getting to them? Although God is omnipotent and omniscient, it does seem that he voluntarily limits himself in certain ways especially when dealing with human beings. One of those ways is that, although God exercises sovereignty over the affairs of Man, he also exercises restraint in his sovereignty because of his great love towards us. This allows for individual human beings to legitimately practice free will - especially when humans choose to go against God's will. But another aspect of God's self-limitation seems to be that he at least permits sin to affect him. (Otherwise, why would God sorrow over Man's sin? Why would have "Jesus wept" over Jerusalem's resistance to and rebellion against him?) Perhaps another way in which God permits himself to be affected by a person's sin is that he cannot "find" the sinner - until the sinner wants to be found.

And yet God must have some idea of where the sinner can be found. The sinful condition of the human heart is such that it cannot, of its own accord, decide to quit sinning and seek God. God, himself, must first do something in the sinner's heart to cause that heart to want to be changed.

And therein lies the next point to ponder. Perhaps God's question, "Where are you?" is not merely a question God is asking in order to find the one who is lost. Perhaps the question is asked so that the one who is lost can realize that he truly is actually lost! How often has a person gone off on a trip in a certain direction only to discover he wasn't where he should be and didn't know where he was? If he had known right away he was going in the wrong direction, he might not have become "as lost" or even lost at all!

The reality is that, not only are we lost but we either don't know it or don't care... or simply refuse to allow ourselves to be found. But not only has God asked, "Where are you?" In Christ God even answers the question, "Aahh... there you are."