Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. – Genesis 2:25

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 13, 2018): Genesis 2

There is a great scene in the television series “M*A*S*H” where the whole camp seems to be looking for Margaret Houlihan, and they can’t find here anywhere. Finally, Colonel Potter asks if anyone has checked the ladies showers and, at that moment, everyone looks at Radar. Radar is known to have peeped into the showers once or twice, but here Radar’s reply is “Can’t someone else go – nudity makes me breathe funny.” Colonel Potter, in his special way, assures Radar that it has the same effect on him, but that Radar is the only one that Potter can trust with the job and, after all, he would never get Hawkeye out of the women’s showers if he sent him instead. And Potter ushers the company clerk out of his office. Nudity affects us.

Maybe it isn’t surprising that before the first sin, nudity wasn’t a problem. But nudity is the point. Up until now, there had been nothing to hide, from each other or God. Up until this point, clothes would not have been understood. But in a few short verses, all of that will change. After they eat from the tree of life we come to a passage that reads like this – “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:7). And then, a few short verses later, the voice of God is heard in the garden asking where our first parents might be (as if he didn’t already know). Adam’s response to God was “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid” (Genesis 3:10). Nudity is the point – and I don’t know what to do with that because I have to admit that nudity makes me breathe funny too.

But I also have to admit that modesty does not seem to be innate inside of any us either. It is something that seems to grow with our awareness of all that is wrong in this world. Our toddlers think nothing of undressing in the middle of the room with the whole world watching. The whole argument between mom and dad and teenagers – especially teenage girls – seems to hover around the idea of “you are not going out dressed like that.” We don’t get it. In fact, I would venture to say that it is only as we begin to comprehend how fallen this world in which we live is that the need for modesty becomes a more pressing requirement. And that only happens as we get older.

Adam and Eve were naked, and they felt no shame, but there are also many kinds of nudity. But, at this moment, they had nothing to hide from each other – or from God. They were naked, and they felt no shame. There is an incredible beauty in these words, as well as an incredible innocence. And the first casualty of sin was this innocence – and it is not really a surprise that once they had sinned, they felt a pressing need to cover up their bodies. It isn’t until that moment that they felt shame, and then that the fig leaves were hurriedly put together.

But here in the Garden of Eden, before all that took place, there could be no shame.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 3