COVERED

COVERED
“Gracie!” I called.  My eyes scanned the yard as I walked along the pathway but I saw no sign of our thirteen week old golden retriever puppy.   I could see no ball of fur bounding over boulders or splashing about in the bird bath or pruning the shrubbery.   Everything was still—too still.

“Gracie!” I called, again, trying to keep my voice soft so as not to wake the neighborhood.  The stars had pulled up their blanket of dawn and the eastern sky was stirring to wakefulness but the sun was still tucked snugly in its resting place behind the mountains.

I circled around and returned to the patio and was about to go into the house to see if she had gone in through the dog door when I heard a strange sound coming from the side yard.  I tilted my head and listened.  Scriiiiiiitch.  Scriiiiiitch.

I took a few steps in the direction of the strange sound.  “Gracie!  Gracie, where are you?”  Scriiiiiitch.   Scriiiiiitch, was the only reply.

I took a few more steps toward the sound and then movement caught my eye.  A large plastic drain pipe of about twenty feet in length lay near the fence and it was definitely moving.   Once again I heard the sound, scriiiiitch.  I took my foot and rolled the drain pipe toward me and heard much rustling from someplace within it and out trotted Gracie at the far end though I hardly recognized her.  The normally white golden was covered in black!

A thought began stirring in my mind, and retrieving my bible from the house and a fresh cup of coffee with the good creamer, I meandered down to one of my favorite boulders and sat down just in time to see the mountains turn purple and mauve as the sun peered over the mountains in the east turning the peaks towering in the west all shades golden.  I watched for a moment more and then opened my bible to Genesis 3 to read about someone who had been walking through a certain garden and calling to those He loved.

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"
 Genesis 3:8-9 (NASB)

Adam and Eve must have looked forward to walking with the Lord.  I wondered what they talked about with Him.  What must it have been like to have nothing whatsoever to hinder their heart to heart conversations with God?  O sweetest fellowship shattered by sin.  I read the words again and sat quietly as sadness closed in around my heart.  Adam and Eve heard the familiar footfall of the Lord but instead of joyfully going to meet Him, they hid.  Sin had severed their friendship with Him who alone is holy.  Death had come.

Suddenly the image of Gracie running happily about the yard in my presence came to mind.  In an instant she chose to enter the drain pipe and ignored the sound of my voice calling her name.  When she finally came out she was covered with filth.  Unlike Adam and Eve, Gracie's hiding was shortlived and once she was out of the drain pipe she ran straight to me, her little puppy tail wagging excitedly.  Adam and Eve's sin had sent them into hiding.

“You have hidden from Me at times.”

I thought about that and nodded in agreement.  Yes, I definitely had tried to hide from Him and even outrun Him a few times.  I remembered the words David wrote about that very thing.

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
Psalms 139:7 (NASB)

 
5 O God, it is You who knows my folly, And my wrongs are not hidden from You.
Psalms 69:5 (NASB)

“Lord,” I began, “it is both a wonderful and yet horrifying thing that nothing is hid from You.  You see it all.  I know if I had been with Adam and Eve that day I too would have had sticky fruit on my hands and face and would have been hiding in the shrubbery.”

He didn’t disagree and we sat in silence as we watched finches having their breakfast at the feeders on the other side of the yard.  I continued thinking about the garden and Adam and Eve’s poor attempt at putting some leaves together in order to cover themselves and I opened my bible and continued reading in Genesis 3.

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

Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God had immediate and deadly consequences not only for them but for creation. Sin had entered the world.  Animals had died—blood had to be shed in order to provide a covering of skin for them.

“Lord, this was a foreshadowing of a sacrifice to come.  Jesus’ shed blood on the cross for sin.”  As I sat in His presence I could almost hear the echo of nails being pounded into the cross that stood between two others on Calvary’s hill.

7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered.
Romans 4:7 (NASB)

I indeed was blessed as I had been forgiven much.   A tear slid down my cheek.

“Tears shed from a repentant heart are precious to Me,” He said as He gently caught it and placed it carefully in His bottle.  A smile touched my lips as I remembered the Psalmist’s words.

You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?
Psalms 56:8 (NASB)

He walked with me a little longer and shared glorious truth with this silly grandma who once tried to hide from Him.

3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:3 (NASB)

No longer do I have to hide for God sees me through His precious Son Jesus and there I am hidden snugly in Him.

As I headed up the garden path into the day I heard the echo of His love which provided the way from death into life, from hiding to fellowship, tell my heart clearly, “Child, I have you covered.”

Joy!

An Original Conversations at the Well
© Copyright by Diana Morgan, September 3, 2012