"...like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria..."

In Genesis, when Adam and Eve decided to hide the shame of their nakedness from God, hiding among the trees, God walks through in the cool of the day to find them. The strangeness and tenderness of his words always drew me: The Lord God called to them, "Where are you?"

Of course God probably knew where they were. But he asked anyway. What tone must that question have been in? What intimacy, what concern? This was when things were perfect, when we knew our true names, and lived in our true homes. The tragedy of the fall is in man's rejection of God, but when I read these words of God, the gravity of this monumental fall hits home to me. GOD for the first time, has to ask the disturbing question, the question whose implications are so sad, and will permeate all subsequent history. "Where are you?" "Where have you gone?"

it implies that we are not where we should be
it implies that someone who cares about us is seeking us.

In asking that question for the first time, I think we also asked ourselves that question for the first time. "Where am I?" "What is my name?" "Where do I belong?"

In the world i live in, I see so many people who are spending their energy beneath their dignity as God's beloveds. If only the children and youth of Los Angeles knew their true names! If only they lived in a world that did not assign value to them based on economic status, language ability, immigration status, produtcivity.....would that they be FOUND.......would that they find themsleves in their true homes, free of shame and alienation.

in my own ways i hide my shame from God. In all the stress and activity of my car accident, my jobs, the day-to day chores of life, i know God is there, saying "Where are you?"

Isaiah 25 says that in Zion, God will remove that shroud that covers all nations, he will swallow up death forever and wipe the tears from every eye.
That is what it means to be found. That is what it means to be where you belong.