Fully Alive MarriageSample

Whole-Person Intimacy

Naked and without shame. Can you even imagine truly having no shame? Especially with nothing covering you?

The Hebrew used here is very picturesque; “naked” can just as well mean “have no barrier.” It doesn’t solely mean Adam and Eve had no clothes on their bodies. There was nothing between them—nothing physical, emotional, or spiritual. No hiding. They were seeing and being seen, knowing, and being known.

And they had no shame!

“Naked and unashamed” is a picture of the whole-person intimacy God intended you to experience physically, emotionally, and spiritually in marriage. That kind of intimacy is an earthly object lesson of the intimacy God experiences within Himself (Father, Son, and Spirit) and desires to have with you, one in which you’re seeing and being seen, knowing, and being known.

Who of us has experienced that fully? But when God created you with the need, desire, and capacity for intimacy, that’s what He had in mind.

Only a few verses after the Genesis reading today comes the serpent. When sin enters this world, shame enters. And the first thing Adam and Eve do is try to hide.

And we humans have been hiding ever since.

Hiding and intimacy are mutually exclusive. You can’t hide and experience intimacy at the same time. Taking the clothes off your body isn’t enough; you must also take the coverings off your heart and soul.

Consider how you have been hiding from your spouse, yourself, and God. Coming out from hiding and pursuing true intimacy can feel scary. It’s vulnerable. It feels easier to go through the motions of sex or to say an intellectual prayer.

But your heart was made for intimacy, and it will not be satisfied with anything less.

Pursuing intimacy with God and intimacy with your spouse are not unrelated. You must begin taking the coverings off the places in your soul you’d rather keep hidden and risk being seen and known.

And when you do, you can experience the deeper level of healing, connection, and wholeness that your heart longs for.

Where have you been hiding? How will you begin pursuing intimacy now and let yourself be fully known?