God is Calling Out for You

In that ancient Genesis narrative, God the Holy and Righteous breathed, and galaxies went spinning. He spoke, and the waters gathered, canyon ridges developed, mountains sprang up, creatures disseminated across the oceans and lands. And after days of revealing His fearsome might to the universes He created, He bent low to the earth and for the first time, used His hands. He delicately sculpted a man and a woman. Creating Adam and Eve was a task with which He wanted to be intimately, personally, lovingly involved. He gave the two of them the kiss of life—Heaven meeting earth, the Divine breathing into clay lungs—and they blinked in the brilliant light of God’s glory, alive in the love of the Maker.

He was their compassionate Father; they were His happy children.

But as you know, the man and woman later broke God’s command. They stepped outside of His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Genesis 3:8 records, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” Humans still relate to God this way when we sin—we run, we hide, we cover up, we pretend otherwise. One could argue that that’s just the nature of humans; I would argue that that’s just the nature of sin. Sin inherently causes humans to move away from God.

Here’s what I want to focus on, though. Look where the narrative takes us.

“But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9)

Adam didn’t suddenly decide to call out to God. God called to him first.

Eve didn’t come to her senses and call out to God either. God called to her first.

God decided there was nothing more important to do in all of His created domain than to look for His lost children. (Now of course, I use the words ‘look’ and ‘lost’ in more of a poetic sense, as obviously God knew where His two dearly, dearly loved children were hiding all along.) God went through the garden, calling out with urgency in His voice, “My son Adam! Oh, My son, Adam! Where have you gone? Eve, My darling daughter—where are you? I’m coming for you! Where are you, My children?”

God does not change (Malachi 3:6). His nature remains as perpetually mercy-full as it ever has been. In one of my favorite quotes, Brennan Manning stated, “I could more easily contain Niagara Falls in a teacup than I can comprehend the wild, uncontainable love of God.” The Father is loving beyond loving, generous beyond generous. And we can learn a lot about the way He interacts with people just by studying this Genesis passage.

When you sin, the very nature of sin itself causes you to lean away from God. But if that is true at all, then another thing is about one hundred times more true: the Father is calling out for you. He is calling out your name. He is seeking you. Oh, how He longs with a burning heart for you, His abundantly-loved child!

It is not your original idea to return to God or to ask for His forgiveness or to feel remorse over your sin. When you get the idea to repent, it’s simply because you’ve heard your name being called, called by the most loving, compassionate voice. When you get the idea to return to God, you are in fact just responding to Him longing for you.

Should you think, “Oh, I can’t go back to God this time,” or “Surely He can’t be looking for me after what I’ve done,” or “I just know He won’t receive me back again,” you must recognize that such thoughts are the natural consequence of that sin because, remember, sin inherently drives you from God. But not only are those thoughts not true—they are actually aggressive lies being hissed to you from the venomous fangs of the snake! And by the grace of God, those lies will be poked through by the rugged cross of Christ.

The truth, my friends, the truth is that God is calling to you as He called to Adam and Eve a few thousand years ago. The psalmist would encourage you right now, “If you hear His voice, do not harden your heart” (Psalm 95:7-8), for the Father “loves you with an everlasting love” and has “drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3). Even if you tried, you cannot run farther than His love will chase you, and that’s a wonderful fact.

“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). If you find yourself in sin today, return to the One who is calling for you. He will receive you again with a wide-open embrace.

Amen and amen!
Josh