Matt Woodley tells the following story:
When I was about ten years old, my dad, a medical doctor, received a special gift from one of his patients: a beautiful globe with shiny sequins. The globe spun around on its base and played one of my dad's favorite songs. My dad proudly demonstrated how it worked: grab it by the base, slowly wind it counter-clockwise, and then release it, letting it spin clockwise while playing beautiful music. He told us, "You can touch it, but don't wind it, because you might break it."
A week later, while my dad was at work, I found the globe and brought it to my room. Although I heard my dad say, "Don't wind it up," I decided to wind it up anyway. I gave it a little twist and let it play. It played, but only for five seconds. So I gave it another twist and another twist and five more twists and then—snap! The globe separated from the base. I desperately tried to fix it. I tried forcing the two pieces together. I tried gluing it. I tried taping it. Finally, as I stared hopelessly at the two pieces of the globe, I realized it was broken beyond repair. So I went into my closet, shut the door, and hid.
It was Genesis 3 all over again.
As soon as Adam and Eve ate … they covered themselves and they hid. At that moment everything changed. The sound of God taking a walk in the garden didn’t bring them joy. His footsteps sounded heavy with anger, and as they came closer Adam and Eve hid in fear.
They could already hear God’s question coming … the one that they were already asking themselves, “What have we done?”
That's the question we expect after Adam and Eve ruined everything ("What have you done?"). But that's not what God asks first. God first asks, "Where are you?"
This week we are beginning a series called: Questions God Asks. (Now … I have to admit I found the idea for this series on the internet. Another church is doing it this fall, but I am not sure what they are doing with the questions. The title of the series caught my attention this summer and made me wonder: “what questions does God ask? And, what do they tell us about God?” And so that is what we will look at through this series.)
So, for seven of the next eight weeks we are going to look at the questions that God asks in the Bible. This Sunday, as we look at Genesis 3:1-13, we are going to look at God’s first question, “Where are you?” and see what that tells us about our loving God.