Privacy? or Sneakiness?

There is a difference. I understand the desire for privacy. My dear hubby hates his photograph being taken, let alone having it published on the social media websites (!!!). His reasoning is somewhat unreasonable to me, but I respect it because I know it is not out of a sense of wanting to hide something.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, their first reaction was to cover themselves. They did not want what they did to be in full view. That is why they made fig leaved aprons for themselves. There was a slight difference between Adam and Eve's situation and our own situation today. Adam and Eve were not in the midst of a sinful (sin-filled) culture, but were alone with only animals and plants...and the Lord...I personally don't believe they were trying to hide their sin from the plants and animals, so the only One they were trying to keep from finding out about their sin was God. God did not accept THEIR MEANS of covering themselves but instead provided them with a skin of an animal (something had to die as a result of their sin) and HE PROVIDED the proper way to be covered.

Are we so different from our first parents? We too try to cover the wrongs that we do in ways that perhaps we think will make them appear less bad, or make ourselves look good (in our own eyes, at least). Is that the correct way? Of course not. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but THROUGH HIM. Those are not just pretty words. They are the truth that sets us free from having to cover ourselves with our own ways of trying to "look good", or hiding altogether from others. I have been to websites where the blogger cleverly hides everything about what they really are about. The website is pretty, pretty pictures, pretty (but empty) words, things that inspire others to want to know more about this family and this blogger, and this blogger always, ALWAYS, had me wondering about what they really stood for, and why it was not openly proclaimed. Why hide? Privacy? Then why blog? And if we truly are in Jesus, why not proclaim it in everything, truly showing that we have HIS covering over OUR SIN, which is something we as Christians are to proclaim, especially in a time such as this....

And yet, instead, there are excuses, and charming alternatives that Jesus "must also bless" because He is a loving God after all, isn't He? Yes. He is a loving God. And like a truly loving Parent, He won't allow for self-deception, especially self-deception in Christians (or those who when pressed will say they are) who have as their main self-interest the desire to gain other people's praise for themselves, instead of where it rightly belongs, with God alone. Then it is still our own works, fig-leaves, that we want others to be impressed with. When we truly love our loving God, we only find comfort in desiring that others know how Jesus alone gets all the glory..... if there is any good to be found in me, it is ONLY because of Him. Is that something that I should keep hidden? Will God be "ok" with my attempts at making Him a hidden "side-kick" of mine that I once in a while bring out so that I can show myself to be a "good Christian"? What can we learn from our first parents regarding such behavior?

This is something that I've been wondering about with all the "big brother surveillance" lately. Many want to do away with such surveillance and I agree in part that it is again the way this world operates, it wants to replace God, to make itself God, watching over us. But do we need to hide ourselves? Do we need fig leaves to make ourselves appear good to others? Or can our lights shine all the brighter when those in the world are calling evil "good" and calling good "evil"? Do we hide our light under a bushel when it is unpopular to be a Christian and only display it for self gratification? Or must we proclaim it even if it gets us, like the early disciples, killed?

Time will tell who the "real Christians" truly are. We have nothing to hide, because we have an Advocate to the Father. :)