“And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”
Genesis 2:25
The first reading today from Genesis stops just short of this verse in Chapter 2. But I think this verse speaks everything.
You can read through todays readings and there is so much jammed packed in them. The creation of woman to be man’s partner. The beauty and sanctity of the spiritual union between a man and a woman that only happens through marriage. And so on.
You can look at the fact that with fifty percent of all marriages ending in divorce, that it is because of these broken marriages, and as a result their broken homes that have played a large role in this broken society. All of this can be gleaned from these readings today. But I’m focusing on that least verse of Genesis Chapter 2, the forgotten verse today, because I think in its essence it underlies everything.
And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
Why does this stick out to me? Sure, at that time, it was before the fall, before sin entered the lives of Adam and Eve, and there was a oneness between them. There was an openness, a connectedness, where they did not see each other’s nakedness in shame, but they saw it in all its beauty.
They were naked and vulnerable, but they didn’t see the other in a shameful way. Nothing was hidden. There were no secrets. They were dependent upon one another. Everything was out in the open, and it was beautiful. There were no barriers, no walls put up – just two partners, two who came from one, who became one again.
This is what marriage is supposed to be. This is how our families are supposed to be. But especially our marriages. Not that we should be walking around naked together, Lord no! But there needs to be a nakedness between us and our spouses – where nothing is hidden, where there are no secrets, where everything is out in the open.
We need to share our joys and concerns and problems and struggles and everything in between, because when we do keep secrets, when we do hide things, when we don’t let our spouse into our very being to help us carry the burden and support us – then that’s when the walls go up. That’s when the barriers are formed. That’s when the darkness creeps into our individual lives, and it soon follows into our marriage and into our families.
If we’re not careful, it will destroy us and it will destroy our families, and it will destroy that which God joined together. As a married couple, we must expose the vulnerabilities that we bury, the afflictions we deal with, and we must trust in each other, and lift each other up.
We must be naked before each other in that sense, and not cover our problems up. We must truly see each other for who we are, and be willing to carry the other.
Unfortunately, this is not the case with most. People see this type of nakedness, this being vulnerable with our spouse as a weakness, and let their own pride get in the way. They don’t want to ask for help, they don’t want to admit their failures, they don’t want to be vulnerable with their spouse because there is fear there. Perhaps fear of rejection, fear of embarrassment, fear of being left alone.
But the irony is, that the rejection, the embarrassment, the loneliness only happens when we put up those walls, and cover up that nakedness. Think about how much this world, our society would change if we simply opened up and pulled down the barriers in our marriages, in our families, and simply let ourselves be helped – and let ourselves be loved.
There is no shame in this openness, in this nakedness. In fact, it’s the only way we can truly live. It’s the only way we can truly love our spouses, and raise our families, It’s the only way we can truly grow.
