Naked And Happy

Why are you in your underwear, I asked. Because I'm naked. That was not the response I was expecting.

The other day Monica and I were invited over for dinner with some friends. Now this friend has two really cool boys. I was highly entertained with their action figures, wrestling, and costumes. The youngest, a 3 year old, greeted us with a superman t-shirt. After dinner he came downstairs in a full Superman costume. I'm talking full suit with the cape and all. I was loving it! But then out of no where the costume disappeared and this lil 3 year old was running around in nothing but his underwear.

He quickly ran to me to continue our game which consisted of me holding him over my head with him pretending to fly. It was great with the Superman costume, but I wasn't so sure about this new outfit. I quickly asked "what happened to the Superman costume?" He quickly replied, "I took it off." I responded with "I can see that. Why are you in your underwear?" He said, "because I'm naked." That was not the response I was expecting.

At what age do we become guarded and embarrassed? I'm glad adults don't run around in their underwear, but there is something refreshing about a child's lack of embarrassment. At some point we learn to hide. We hide our true selves. We hide our secret sins. We hide because we are afraid someone might see us for who we really are.

In the Bible the creation story starts out with two naked humans. They we naked and happy. Then Adam and Eve disobeyed God and their response was to hide. They covered themselves because they felt shame. Imagine if they didn't disobey God. Furniture would be really different. I mean leather sticks to skin so we wouldn't have leather chairs and couches. I think everything would be made out of bear skin. I've heard it's nice and soft. I digress...

I'm all for clothes. I think people should wear them. In fact I think some people should wear a lot more of them then they do. But with clothing came shame. What if the key to finding joy is by being who you really are and not feeling ashamed? I don't know, maybe we were created to obey God and find comfort in knowing who He created us to be. I think we hide because we feel shame. When we know Him and that He's proud of us it should take away our desire to hide. We should feel shame about our sins, but the key is to confess it to God and not try to hide it.