Back to Adam and Eve...

“And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Gen 2:25)  This is God’s description of the unity he wants a husband and wife to experience: to be honest, transparent and unashamed. Yet, millions of couples are getting into bed with layers and layers of clothes on (baggage, guilt and unhealed wounds from past relationships.) All these unresolved issues create distance between married couples and keep them from real intimacy.

As single people, these are things we can deal with now so that when God blesses us with a marriage we can truly be naked and unashamed as God designed. I’m not speaking of naked in the physical sense – I’m speaking of a true stripping down of all the walls we have spent years building around ourselves: guilt, regrets, mistakes, distrust, unforgiveness – layers and layers of spiritual clothes that we have put on through the years.

God has brought this to my attention in my own life. I resisted for quite some time unwilling to strip away those walls and become totally transparent and vulnerable again. Yet, the truth of his word is undisputable; I can’t experience God’s best design for marriage unless I take some serious steps to remove those walls. As I have been praying, God has been revealing what those walls are. It’s a painful process – sometimes requiring forgiving others and sometimes requiring forgiving myself.  

I’ve experienced this spiritual removal of walls lately and it’s been both frightening and freeing. Frightening because someone may see the real me inside and decide I'm not for them, but freeing because the real me is coming out and I’m no longer like Jacob dressing up as Esau to get a blessing. I’m ME! And I really like me. More importantly, I like what God has made me – an image of himself, a reflection of Christ, a witness back to HIM that his work on the cross has changed me forever.