In this week’s Torah portion God places Adam in the garden of Eden and tells him he can eat from every tree except for the Tree of Good and Evil. The serpent comes to Eve and deceives her into eating from the tree, which she also gives to Adam. God gave Adam and Eve one commandment, to refrain from eating the fruit of this tree, which they did not follow.

Upon eating from the tree of knowledge Adam and Eve became aware of their nakedness and made aprons. “Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked; and they sewed together a fig leaf and made themselves aprons.” (3:7) Later in Genesis (3:21) the verse says that “…God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin, and He clothed them.”

Why would God make them clothes if they already made themselves aprons? Furthermore, they brought about their own shame. They were embarrassed as a natural consequence of sinning against God and eating from the tree. As such, why does God clothe them?

Lesson:

This is an unbelievable example of God’s abundant love, compassion, and forgiveness that He bestows on all of us all the time. Adam and Eve made an apron due to their embarrassment of realizing that they needed clothes which was a direct result of their sinning and eating from the tree. Often times we have an attitude of “you made your bed, you can lie in it.” If someone makes a mistake, they have to bear the consequences. However, God in His abundant mercy does not relate to us in this way.

Even after Adam and Eve made aprons, God went above and beyond, making them beautiful clothes and clothing them Himself to show them that no matter what they do, He will always provide for them, help them, and love them.

God provides for us, is right where we are, holding us close and showering us with love and compassion at any given time, in every situation.

God loves us more than we can imagine, more than our hearts have the capacity to love. As such, even when we are at fault, even when we are the ones who messed up, even when we went against God and turned away from what we know to be good, God still holds us close and cleans up after our messes to put us back on the right track.

God’s love for us is not dependent upon us or our actions, just like a parent loves a child no less for a mistake that they made. God’s love for us is dependent on one thing and one thing only: the fact that God is a loving God who loves us unconditionally and more than our hearts have the capacity to love. When we can cling close to this, feel God’s love for us, no matter where we are or what we did, we are on the right path to moving forward and correcting anything, just like Adam and Eve.

Exercise: Think of a time where you messed up. Feel in your heart that God has already forgiven you for it. Now forgive yourself.