The God Who Seeks Us

"But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" Genesis 3:9

This was after the fall, after Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and after they made coverings for themselves and while they were hiding from God.

God, being God, knew exactly what Adam and Eve had done. He knew they were hiding from Him, but He sought them out. He gave them a chance to approach and repent. He wanted them to approach in trusting relationship. Instead of repenting, however, Adam and Eve made excuses for their sin and hid from God. 

"Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He said, 'I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?'" Genesis 4:9

This was after Cain killed Abel.

Just as God gave Cain's parents a chance to repent after they sinned, God gave Cain a chance to approach and repent of his sin. God prompted Cain for the truth, but similar to his parents, Cain straight up lied to God and tried to hide his sin, too.

"And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my garments?' 31 And his disciples said to him, 'You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'' 32 And he looked around to see who had done it." Mark 5:30-32

This was after the bleeding woman touched Jesus' cloak and was healed. Just like with Adam, Eve, and Cain, God sought out this woman. Even though he already knew everything about this woman, he wanted her to approach him. He sought her out of a crowd to speak to her personally and let her know that this relationship was made to go two ways. 

Unlike Adam, Eve, and Cain, this woman responds to Jesus' call with honesty. 

"But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.'" Mark 5:33-34

And when the woman came to Jesus with humility and fear, honest of her doings, Jesus personally spoke to her and gave her his blessing.

God SEEKS us. He desires us to approach him in relationship. He desires us to come to him, with all our brokenness and sin because he already knows. We don't gain anything by hiding. Our sin wants to hide from a just God, but by giving in to the desires of our flesh, we separate ourselves from God. We can't preserve our pride or our image because we have none. We only lie to ourselves and God when we pretend we can fix ourselves in the time we hide from God (1 John 1:8-10). 

We won't ever be clean if we don't reach out to him to be cleansed. He is faithful to forgive. And that honest, two-way relationship, where we are completely helpless and reliant, and he is completely sovereign and trustworthy, will be more beautiful than we can ever imagine.