by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Restored

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”
Genesis 3:7 English Standard Version

A patch is never as good as the real thing.

I thought my family was rich when I was small. There was always food on the table and clothes to wear. I felt the love of my parents in the way they cared for me and disciplined me. Through my parents, I knew that God was real and that he answered prayers (except the prayer to glue me to my bed so I didn’t have to go to school the next day).

It wasn’t until later in life that I discovered that my family was barely making it by with little resources. We didn’t buy a lot of new things, instead we patched stuff that ended up wearing out, especially jeans. Many of my pants had iron on patches at the knees since I was frequently on them. I learned how to repair a bicycle’s inner tube with a patch rather than buy a new one. Patches were how we saved money, but a patch never made anything new.

Adam and Eve tried to patch their relationship with God by covering up their nakedness with flimsy, decomposing fig leaves. The patch wouldn’t work, instead it revealed how devastating their situation had become. They couldn’t fix it. They couldn’t return to the perfection of the garden.

Our attempts to make things right with God will always look like a poorly patched pair of jeans. The only remedy for our lives is the one that God provides.

 ^“And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”
Genesis 3:21 ESV

God sacrificed an animal to cover Adam and Eve. Jesus sacrificed his life not merely to patch things up, but to restore our relationship with the Father. And now we live with the promise that one day we will enjoy Eden.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado