When God Asks: Where Are You?

And they (Adam and Eve) heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence (face) of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he (Adam) said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Genesis 3.8-10

God is often the one giving the answers to life rather than asking the questions. But when He does ask, it’s an especially attentive moment for us to draw in.

Logically speaking, it’s weird. Because if God is omniscient (all-knowing) (Psalm 147.5) then why would He ever need to ask a question? Think about a time you asked a question that you already and definitively knew the answer to.

When God asks us a question, it’s not because He doesn’t know the answer. His question to us serves as a locator for our hearts.

Just like with a GPS system, in order to get to the destination, we first have to know where we are. When God is asking us questions, He is helping us to locate where we are in relation to Him — the posture of our hearts.

All of us can relate to Adam and Even in that life gets messy sometimes. We mess up. And we often stray away from the Father; we hide in our sin. Try to do life on our own. Or much worse, we reject Him outright altogether.

But God is SO loving that He never just leaves us where we are. He finds us where we are and brings us back to Himself. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the curse of sin took hold of humanity causing our fallen condition that we live in today.

God’s Course Correction

Had God not corrected their course in the moment, Adam and Eve could have remained in the Garden of Eden, ate from the tree of life, and lived forever in this fallen sinful state (Genesis 3.22).

But God’s course correction in that moment, later to be followed up by our redemption through Jesus’s sacrifice, reconciled all of humanity putting us back on the [right] path to God Himself.

God’s Question Leads To God’s Purpose

God has a purpose for you and me and we can’t accomplish that on the wrong path. So, sometimes God has to ask: Where are you? Because inevitably, God will always have to redirect us to the right route.

And that’s okay. That’s His job and promise to show us the way (John 14.6). He always stands ready and willing to show us the way — if we’re willing to listen.

“Where are you?” is a great heart check that we should never stop responding to. God is in the business of aligning us to His image — each and every day and moment.

As long as we live, we should long to be closer to the Father. And knowing where we are is a good start.