Genesis 3:8-13

Verse 8 is one of my favorite verses from my old Children's Bible.

8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"
10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
11And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?"
12 Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."
13 And the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Why do I like it? Because in it, God is real. He is physical. Adam and Eve hear him walking in the garden. I envision them off on some garden path when the sound of crinkling leaves slaps a great big "uh oh!" guilty look onto their faces. Then they hear God's voice. And it is probably a lot like their voices.

Adam and Eve had been naked until just before this. In God's image. That makes me wonder what God was wearing. Was God naked? Is that why we think of God as a male? Or did God wear radiant robes or something, and it just never occurred to Adam and Eve that they didn't have any radiant robes and they were just naked like animals?

Interesting, too, isn't it, that God questions Adam and Eve like a cop or a judge? God is all-knowing, yet He inquires of them what happened. In fact, the story makes it seem like God would never have caught on, except He noticed that they had slapped together some fig leaf loincloths. (Incidentally, in real life, fig leaves do not make good loincloths.) That makes God seem very human, which is, at once, both soothing and disconcerting.