Why Are You Here?
This article was published in the Summer 2005 Issue of the Current Blessing Magazine
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Today was the day. The Lord seemed to hesitate, a delay from His normal routine. The angels in heaven wondered why God would delay. “Isn’t He late for His walk with Adam in the cool of the day?” “Is that a tear in the corner of His eye?”

Yes, today was the day. He knew it would come. He had known before He had spoken, and created light from darkness. He had known before He breathed life into Adam’s nostrils. Today would come. Today, the day Adam would be like Him. Today, the day Adam would know hurt. Today, the day Adam would discover sadness. Today, the day Adam would discover loss. Today, the day Adam would discover betrayal.

He stepped into the beautifully manicured garden. Adam’s work apparent in each cultivated flower, bush and tree. The beauty of the garden and the work of Adam’s hand did not bring the usual joy or delight. He stepped into the clearing, the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge both standing before Him. Withholding His gaze from the place Adam hid, God called out once again, “Adam, where are you?”

His head bowed and fear upon his face, Adam stepped into the clearing from the shadows. Adam averted his eyes from the brilliant light emanating from the Lord of Glory, a thousand times more harsh and penetrating than just the day before. He stepped fully into the light, and unable to lift his eyes, quickly looked over his pathetic clothing, insuring he was not exposed. Adam’s throat suddenly dry, a sensation unfelt before, caused his words to slip from him in a hoarse whisper. “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Though barely audible on the gentle breeze, Adam’s words rang loudly in the ear of God. The words pierced the Lord of Glory to His very heart, and the ache of yet another betrayal, pierced the very depth of His love. Today was the day.

Why would God have done this? Why did He create Adam KNOWING that mankind would betray Him? Why would He intentionally create a person that would ultimately hurt Him more deeply than anything else could?

The answer defines and boldly declares the reason we were created. It defines our purpose in life and gives us the vision for our future. The answer? God wanted a friend.

With sixty-six books to choose from, and hundreds of chapters to read, this message can often be diluted for the casual Bible reader. With so many issues to address from the pulpit, this simple message can be missed in the Sunday sermon.

However, this one truth can bring light to the scriptures and understanding to the reader. The simplicity of the message can lift the burden of the law from those bound by religion, and bring salvation to the lost.

In the United States, and around the world, the serpent has attacked the family and lured fathers from their children. The result is a generation who can’t view God as a loving father because they have never felt a father’s love. The limitation that this sets for the church can be devastating.

How do you help people relate to God if they have no way to understand Him? As ambassadors and emissaries, we must look for common ground. The revelation of friendship can be the key.

With this revelation we can build on the truths that everyone knows. Truths such as, friendship is not without risk. Or, that friendship is not without heartache, and is not without pain. We can remind them that true friendship is built through trials and strengthened through the heartaches we share.

Each person we come in contact with is uniquely qualified to be a friend of God. The wife, who recently discovered her husband’s affair, is now uniquely qualified to understand God’s heartache when the church has committed adultery against him. The father, who has lost a child in a car accident, is now uniquely qualified to understand the sadness of God when a soul is lost for all eternity.

Each person is uniquely qualified to be a friend of God. When we share with people the things that make them uniquely qualified, they will also begin to understand that God is uniquely qualified to be their friend as well.

On the sixth day of creation, Adam was not fully qualified to be a true friend of God. God had experienced things that Adam could not understand. God had felt betrayal, Adam had not. Before Adam was ever created, God had already felt the sting. His anointed cherub, the angel that covered, betrayed Him and took one third of the angels with him. Adam had never felt such a crushing blow.

But now, Adam knew betrayal, his own wife had betrayed him to the serpent, and he had betrayed her to God. Soon he would understand loss as he was removed from the garden, and even more deeply, at the death of his son. He would fully understand betrayal when Cain would kill his brother and the loss when Cain was driven from him.

Adam would learn through experience and come to understand hurt, betrayal and suffering, but through his trials, the one thing Adam would have was a friend who understood how he felt.

God wanted so desperately to relate to us and be our friend that He went before us and experienced everything that we would ever suffer. He suffered it all so that we could know that we are not alone. He experienced our pain so we could know that He understands.

But people are dieing and churches are shriveling because the people inside do not know this simple truth. They do not know how to relate to a distant, aloof God. To them the Bible is dry and life is meaningless. Loneliness and despair fill the hearts of these God loves so dearly.

I fear that as Paul preached in Second Corinthians chapter eleven, that we have been distracted from the simplicity and purity that is in Christ. We have been distracted from encouraging simple devotion to a loyal friend. Through legitimate needs we have been carefully averted from preaching the simplicity of befriending a friendly God. We have become Pharisees in our generation, adding rule upon rule with the intention of guiding men to God, instead of simply introducing them to our closest friend.

We must reach out, and touch these people. We must show them by our example, and introduce them through the Word. We must demonstrate an intimacy that they never knew was possible, and like a good friend at a party, introduce them to one another. We must help begin the conversation that will last for all eternity and allow them to see the things they have in common.

Let us wade into the crowds and mingle with the people. Let us introduce them to the friend we brought with us and encourage conversation. Let us demonstrate our love for our friend, by giving Him the one thing He desires most, more friends. Let us all sit together in the last day and eat together, the marriage supper of the Lamb, friend with friend for all eternity.