God created Adam and Eve to know him and to love him, and he designed the Garden as the place where they could enjoy that friendship with him. But as soon as Adam and Eve sin, their vision of things changes, both of God and of themselves. Imagine them trembling behind a bush, beneath their hastily made fig-leaf garments. They become afraid, they cover themselves up, and they hide. When we sin, we can feel like Adam and Eve, afraid of God and hiding from him. It is precisely this mistaken fear that the Lord came to correct. God looks on us as his children. He loves us, not because we have earned his love but because God is love (1 Jn 4:8, 16). His love wipes away our sinfulness and makes us precious in his eyes. After his Resurrection, Jesus, the New Adam, speaks emphatically to his disciples: Do not be afraid! (Mt 28:10). God is our Father, and Jesus shows us that we do not need to be afraid to address him. We do not need to cover our nakedness before him. We do not need to hide anymore. We can converse with him. We can pray to him. In fact, in prayer we encounter the love of God that casts out fear. Saint Gregory of Nyssa teaches, “Prayer is intimacy with God and contemplation of the invisible. It satisfies our yearnings and makes us equal to the angels. Through it, good prospers, evil is destroyed, and sinners will be converted.”10 God did not make us to hide from him. He made us so that we could have intimacy with him. 14 CHAPTER 1 OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN
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