“Where are you?”
— Genesis 3:9
Where are you
A friend told me about two couples who had arranged to meet in Scotland. When the time came, one couple stood waiting, with no sign of the other. Eventually, one of the women phoned her friend and asked, “Where are you?” The reply came back, “We’re here, waiting in Dunoon.” There was a moment of confusion. “Dunoon? No, I said Troon!” A simple misunderstanding had left them a two-hour journey apart, with a ferry crossing along the way.
That story brings to mind another “Where are you?”—one spoken in very different circumstances. In Genesis 3:9, God calls to Adam after he has disobeyed and hidden himself. The Hebrew is ʾayyekkā?—“Where are you?” Clearly, God is not asking Adam for his GPS coordinates. This is a question about relationship, a summons to come out of hiding and face what has happened between them.
After fifty years with Scripture, one of its qualities I have come to appreciate is how often God asks questions whose answers he already knows. His questions invite us to pause, to reflect and to recognise something we might otherwise avoid. In asking Adam where he is, God gives him the opportunity to speak honestly about his fear, his disobedience and his hiding.
Revelation, then, is not only God giving humanity answers. Sometimes God reveals a human being to himself by asking precisely the question that will lead him to look into the mirror of his own soul. As we read those ancient words, we may begin to hear them addressed to us: “Where are you?” We know where we are standing, but the question asks us to consider where we stand with God.