“Surely Adam’s disobedience did not alter the being of God. Or perhaps it did. Perhaps God did change, abruptly and radically so—not in reality of course, but in Adam’s mind. Could it be that Adam’s pain—the pain of his own unfaithfulness—altered his mind? Could it be that Adam’s infidelity reconfigured his default settings? Could it be that his failure changed his understanding, his inner vision, his perception of himself, his world and others, but most importantly, the face of God? Could it be that Adam projected his own brokenness on God’s face? Could it be that he tarred the Father’s face with the brush of his own angst?

Perhaps Adam took a paintbrush, dipped it into the cesspool of his own double-mindedness and guilt, and painted an entirely new picture of god with it. And perhaps it was this god, created by his own darkened imagination—not the Lord—that he feared, and from who he hid.”
—C. Baxter Kruger (Across All Worlds: Jesus Inside our Darkness)

As Scripture and history testifies, humanity became lost in the darkness and illusion of separation, losing sight of the One who formed us and danced over us in delight. We became prisoners in the confines of our own mind. As C. Baxter goes on to say, “What changed in the relationship was not God, but Adam, and he now projected his pain onto God, thereby creating an entirely mythological deity, a fragment of his own baggage. But this fragment was nevertheless frighteningly real to Adam.”

Although God continued to offer redemption and healing from these putrid images, we just couldn’t accept such a beautiful gift of unending love and enduring mercy. As revealed in the Genesis story of Adam (which would soon become a pattern for the rest of humanity), we would run from the One we were called to abide in. Sadly, only a small remnant would somewhat acknowledge and engage with God’s goodness. These few, as stated in Hebrews 11, would be remembered as faith’s heroes—revealing the truth that faith (trust) is grounded in the awareness of God’s goodness.

Nevertheless, the Father said “no” to leaving the human race lost inside the illusion of separation and abandonment. He would not allow this dilemma to go any further. In his oneness with the Father, Christ came as one of us, in the likeness of flesh, to heal and revolutionize our image of the Father—fascinating us with the glory and goodness of the One he called “Abba.”

If you want to know more about the Father’s love for you, check out my book, “Fascinated: Living in Awe of the Father.”