When God Asks, “Where Are You”

The suffering seen in the world today appears quickly in the gospel narrative when the harmonious relationships for which humanity was created are interrupted by a relational break. Yet, the hope of the gospel is that God continues to move. When the humans in the origin story abandon trust in God they find themselves thrust into hiding by shame. This shame continues to dismantle the relationships of creation. Suddenly the man and the woman view themselves and each other not as beloved image bearers of God, but as outsiders to be blamed and raised as suspect. They move away from what philosopher Martin Buber describes as “I/Thou” relationships towards “I/It” relationships in which the innate goodness of the other is ignored and mistreatment of another becomes more probable. Their relationship with God is also marred by this shame as they withdraw from him, hiding rather than seeking connection. Yet, the God of the gospel continues to move and he does so through pursuit, he reaches towards those who have pulled away from him. God reaches out in the form of a question, “where are you?” Following their decision to move away from God, the humans of God’s original creation find themselves burdened by a false identity that shame whispers over them, one naming them as bad rather than “supremely good.” In his reaching, God declares the truth of their identity. He speaks against the lie of shame which propelled them into isolation and declares them once again relational image bearers, supremely good, and worth restoring to relational wholeness. 

This move of God to reach towards those who are withdrawn fills the pages of the gospel narrative. God did not merely reach out to the ashamed, he was also seen reaching out to the abused. In a world where broken relationships continued to mark the existence of humanity, where shame continued to cast a shadow over the identity of individuals impacting how they then saw others, the experience of abuse emerged. Abuse is the result of objectification and propels creation further from God’s original intent. It leaves the victims facing a crisis of identity, isolated from their community and struggling with an inability to trust others and therefore form relationships. To those who were treated as such in scripture, the God of the gospel reached and asked, “Where are you?” He honored and remembered their names and he restored to them their dignity, empowering them to give voice to their story and to their pain. He recognized the suffering and spoke with the promise of a different future even in the midst of great injustice. Those who experienced him in this way named him, “The God who sees” (see the story of Hagar, Genesis 16). In this name of God, the transformative power of the gospel is offered to those who today also find themselves abused. God is still the one who sees them. He is the one who knows their names and refuses to allow them to remain objectified. He continues to reach out with his transformative presence that asks, “Where are you?” When the abused and the ashamed seek to answer him, they enter into the gospel story that offers them a way forward to a restored identity of relational image bearers who are known and beloved.