Naked and Afraid: The Genesis Episodes and Shame
Naked and Afraid: The Genesis Episodes
The red squiggly lines of spell check lets me know that unshaming is not a word, and I am a disgrace for using it. Even my computer shames me. Shaming others has become something of a national pastime. Even our country, the United States is famous for baseball, apple pie, and internet humiliation. I suppose that shame’s allure is in the illusion of control. If we mortify people effectively enough, then they won’t do things that either they ought not or that we wish they wouldn’t. But how effective is it really? How safe does shame really keep us? Shame sneers at human frailty and individuality, creates the perfect environment for deception. Just like Adam and Eve cowering in the garden, our sense of shame causes us to contort ourselves into the ghost of others’ expectations.
But let me get to the point. I suspect that anxiety often finds its roots in shame. Adam and Eve eat of the tree of self-consciousness.
Isn’t that what the knowledge of good and evil is; an awareness of what is good and what is not about the world, others, and most importantly, ourselves?
Interesting then, that they were forbidden to eat of the tree of the knowledge of embarrassment and inequity, and the next moment, they notice that their nakedness and are terrified. I don’t think about being in the buff much when I am alone but nakedness would cause some serious mortification in most circumstances. And nakedness is a common staple of anxiety dreams. We show up for an event, but somehow our clothes have gone missing. In our subconscious, we are the emperor parading around in invisible clothing.
So why do Adam and Eve notice they are naked? They are the only ones in the world, and God made them, so I assume He pretty much knows and has seen all of Adam and Eve’s goods, so to speak, given that he made their bodies. And the animals don’t care. My cats have never said anything to me about it, so my guess is that the animals weren’t going to form a public decency committee.
But Adam and Eve cover themselves up clumsily. Like our carefully constructed personas, leaves wilt, dry up, and then disintegrate. They are easily seen through. So Adam and Eve are afraid. This is such a primal fear.
There is a reality show, terrible and laughable in its premise; Naked and Afraid. Capitalizing on that primal agony inside all of us, it combines several nightmares. Naked in front of the disconnected TV world seems less awful than bare in front of Mr. or Ms. Random and the Whole Camera Crew. And since the participants are nude without any protection or provision from the elements, we, voyeurs that we are, watch to see the curse revisited. Mostly it is just awkward and mundane. Trying to build a tiny shelter while exposed or trying to build a fire in the altogether is not exciting. It is inconvenient. The show should be renamed Awkward Insect Bites and How to Scratch Them. I like to imagine Carl Jung lecturing on this show and how it exercises our collective conscious.
In Genesis, God doesn’t participate in the schadenfreude humans seem to cherish. Instead, He clothes them. Clothing is such a personal gift. To give clothing means you know what the giftee likes, his or her size, and/or what he or she really needs. At my work last Christmas, people gave gifts. No one gave clothing. I don’t buy a couple of my daughters clothing without their physical presence in the store because I am pretty sure of failure. Take a woman jeans or bathing suit shopping and you understand why giving clothing can be complicated. But God knew their size, what they needed. He gave them quality garments. It actually says He made them. He covered their exposure. Adam and Eve have just rebelled with disastrous consequences, and God’s first reaction is to cover their embarrassment.
Could it be that we have misunderstood His intentions towards us?
Whenever we see someone looking nice and confident in a new outfit, we often say That is so you! Well-made and nicely fitting clothing can reveal something about a person, show the best side of them. God gives Adam and Eve leather, a second, sturdier skin. Before He metes out His justice, like a gentleman, He eases their shame, gives them coverage. He restores their dignity.
In many of the inner healing sessions I have led, Jesus shows up bearing gifts. Often it is clothing. Sometimes a robe made of light, or a white tunic, which is what one might expect. But sometimes there are ball gowns, dancing shoes, and suits of armor. Each gift is suited for the receiver, covering, comforting, and making beautiful what was not.
So as you sit in your own garden of prayer, whether you see it as Eden, Gethsemane, or the locked garden in Song of Songs, expose what you know about you to both yourself and your loving God, and ask Him to clothe you. Give him your fig leaves. Will you accept His covering or stand shivering in the shadows?
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10
10 Comments
Kimmy
Okay, so I know you didn’t talk about Harry Potter at all – but I’m going to, because I had a thought.
In Harry Potter’s world, house elves don’t get clothes.
Giving clothes to a house elf would mean that they were free, no longer a slave to the house that owned them.
They wear dirty dish rags and holey pillow cases and other bits of discarded fabrics.
If and when they are presented clothes, it’s usually as a punishment. Clothes are given as a dismissal; it’s a pronouncement of how this house elf didn’t do a good enough job being loyal or taking care of his masters. House elves receive clothes with horror, with cries for mercy, with shame.
This is all because they’ve been brain washed to think that they don’t deserve to be free. They are afraid. They are caught in that same Adam-and-Eve shame.
But then, there is Dobby – and he is unlike everyone else. He dreams of escaping his abusive situation. And once he is given his sock of dismissal (albeit, though a bit of trickery on Harry’s part), he is over the moon with happiness.
A bit later, Hermione (who understands what it’s like to be treated as a less-than, but who also believes that this is not a fate that everyone has to just accept) begins knitting hats for all the house elves and leaving them hidden about. This way, she hopes, the elves can accidentally discover freedom and dignity.
But the elves are scared of the hats. They cannot accept the gift of freedom, because they have been made to believe that freedom will be worse than the abuse they already receive.
But Dobby? He knows that freedom is better. Not only does he embrace the clothes that made him free the first time, he gathers every hat he can find, and he wears them all at once. A tall, ridulous, fuzzy CROWN of freedom.
Dobby revels in it. Dobby recognizes that he doesn’t have to be naked and ashamed (or over-clothed and ashamed, in this case).
I want to be like that. I wanna grab all the knitted hats I can get. We don’t have to be prisoners and abuse victims and slaves to fear any longer. We can choose to be covered in love and peace and freedom.
Thanks for posting this, Alice. I think it’s just what I needed today.
Yolanda
I never thought of God giving Adam and Eve clothing to ease their shame and to restore them. That is a refreshing way to look at it. And he continues to clothe us too! How Magnificent He is! God Bless!
RebeccaLynn
It’s also often overlooked that God made a blood sacrifice in order to cover their shame (which was sin). In order to make garments of animal skin, the animal had to have been sacrificed. It doesn’t say it was wool or hair (like from a sheep), but hide/skin. They tried to cover their shame themselves, with fig leaves (there is deeper meaning of the fig tree too), but God showed them that the only way to atone for sin was through exactly what He said: the shedding of blood, and death. This is how and why they taught their own children to offer animal sacrifices as atonement for sin. But God was the first and the last to cover our sin – first temporarily through animal sacrifice, and then eternally through Jesus Christ.
Rita
.I loved the way you write!!! This is powerfully written..it is interesting that the covering always covers shame..I remember sometimes in mental hospitals, some patients throw off their clothes.. so the parody is without cover is akin to insanity, whereas in Eden, they walked without clothes because God covered with with His glory…we lost that glory.. so yes.. we do need our coverings and you brought out the blood covering..(I just recently wrote something about the blood covering so it is interesting to read it again here, Praise God, I love this when this happens)
stare przepisy kulinarne
Very good website – bookmarked
Jordan
Love this! Such a powerful reminder this morning.
The Real Couponer (@TheRealCouponer)
Sometimes we are our own worst enemies when it comes to shame
headcasechristian
Ugh. I just love LOVE reading your stuff. I feel like it makes me a better writer. It makes me think. It gives me different perspective. Thank you.
Tami (@ThisMomsDelight)
There is so much to learn about us through Adam and Eve’s life. This has given me even more insight on the subject.
Aleida
Thank you! This post is allowing me to self-reflect.