I’ve been told that when we women talk, we spin webs. As a young wife and mother, I was terribly guilty of that. Chasing rabbits down various trails, I could turn what should have been a simple response into a headache of an answer. One that left myself and the poor soul I was talking with scratching our heads wondering first, who we were, and secondly, what in the world were we talking about in the first place.
My sweet daughter as a young teen had the same problem especially when it came to conversations where her dad wanted a direct response. If he asked her something like, “Who are you going with to the mall?” she would begin, “Well, I met this girl, and I want to get to know her….” Mid sentence, hoping to go straight to what he was asking, he would rephrase the question.
Watching this from the sidelines was so sadly comical. With each response she gave, her dad would become more frustrated. With each answer, my now befuddled daughter, who had just dug herself a hole that left her “grounded for life.”—a punishment that never stuck but according to my husband, could be reversed by “earning it back”—as much as she tried, left out what mattered most. The “who.”
At one time or another, every human being has experienced being the giver or the receiver of a convoluted answer. Whether it’s habit, the culture we live in, or our DNA, giving a clear-cut response—shooting straight—does not come naturally. For those of us who think we need to include the most minute detail or we’re not telling the whole truth, we don’t have a clue when we’re not getting to the point. Other scenarios though, of not liking where a question is going, or looking at a situation we don’t want to face, can make any of us into the most magnificent Olympic backstrokers.
Take Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They both have just eaten the forbidden fruit. God enters the Garden first asking, “Where are you?” Then, “Did you eat from the forbidden tree?” Followed by, “Why did you do that?” (italics my paraphrase)
In response, every answer of Adam and Eve’s played dodgeball with the truth.
Either by ricocheting who was responsible onto one another, the serpent, or even to God Himself, Adam and Eve tried to explain away their actions. See Genesis 3: 8-13.
Only God is completely truthful for He IS Truth. He IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (See John 14:1.) The Good News is that He doesn’t leave us in those things we try to hide from Him, ourselves, and others. It is in His love for us that by His Holy Spirit, He brings to the surface of our hearts what we need to confess. He wants to restore to us what was lost when sin entered the Garden of Eden.
God yearns for us to be one with Him even as He is with Jesus. (See John 17:20-21.) If Jesus lives within our hearts, if we abide in Him, we can bank on God to bring that about. He promises He will. (See John 15.)
“…There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” –Philippians 1:6 (MSG)
“…for with God all things are possible.” –Matthew 19:26b
Kimberly
