Letters #009: Naked not Ashamed
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:25 ESV)
This verse has been on my mind for some time now with particular imagery. If it were up to me, I will probably never mention this but it’s something I’ve been processing with the Father and feel the need to share. This is me inviting you into my conversation with Him.
It’s worth mentioning that the goal is to get you to focus on the state of your heart because out of it flows all issues of life.
God made man and woman and they were naked and not ashamed. Based on how the story goes, we can also infer that they were not aware of their nakedness. They sin and suddenly they become aware of their nakedness and attempt to cover it up in their own understanding.
But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Genesis 3:9-11 ESV)
Sin led to an awareness of being naked and an attempt to cover up in a way man thought was right.
We are in times where there’s a lot of “you do you”, “live your own truth”, “do what you think is right” and these relativism philosophies and ways of thinking are shooting up in several areas of our lives. It would seem that we want to be “naked and not ashamed” in our own way, not necessarily as God designed it. In God’s design there wasn’t an awareness of the nakedness, there wasn’t an idolisation of the body. Our design sort of suggests and embraces that.
Our bodies are the temple of the Most High God. We do not live for ourselves but for Christ. It is not “it’s my body and I will do anything with it”. It should be, this is God’s temple, how would He have it adorned? I can tell you one thing for sure, God loves, appreciates and creates beauty. The physical temple that was built in the old testament was beautiful, go read the story. It was adorned with the best of the best. God anointed and ordained people specifically for it, that’s how much He was invested in it. In fact, just take a look at creation in itself, the skies, the waters, the people, the animals, isn’t it all a wonder to behold?
God wants you to look beautiful. He wants you to rock that body and treat it well. So when we adorn ourselves, the thinking should be “Lord, how do you want your temple to be today?” It has nothing to do with what others might think or how you might “suffocate them”. And no, this is not permission for you to dress shabbily or poorly either. God appreciates beauty and God wants our best always.
I should mention again that the focus here is not singularly about the clothes we put on or how we adorn our exterior bodies but about making a decision to do what is right by God not what is right in our own eyes. His standards and designs over our desires.
God loves you and paid dearly for you. You are worth so much to Him, so much more than you can imagine. Don’t believe what anyone else, not even your mind might say. He is where the joy and all the good pleasures of life reside. Let your philosophy be: God over everything else. Let God define your standards.
Ciao Ciao