We’ve all had a booger moment. Let me explain.
A booger moment is that moment when you realize that people weren’t laughing at your jokes they were laughing at the snot rocket projecting out of your nose. Or it’s that moment when you realize that the students that you were preaching to were not uncharacteristically focused on the message because you had really good content. No, they were focused because your pants were unzipped.
I remember one particular occasion in High School when I was talking (that’s what the kids these days call flirting) to a girl that I liked as I was walking to my car. It seemed to be going really well. I was putting my super awesome moves on. I was certain that I’d score a date at some point very soon. As I was basking in my awesomeness I decided to check the mirror just so I could share my awesomeness with an agreeing face. To my horror I had a lovely dangling booger hanging out my nose. Not cool. Suddenly I looked at the world much different. I’d probably never talk to this girl again just out of the sheer horror that she might bring up the atrocious event that just occurred.
Don’t pretend that you haven’t had a million moments like this. This is why many of us have had that dream about being naked before History class. There is something innate in humans to put up a facade and project an image that is better than reality. Deep down we all know that it isn’t true and reality haunts us.
This all stems from our first parents. Up until Genesis 3:7 Adam and Eve were blissfully unaware of their nakedness. Then sin entered in. Their solution was the same solution that we have come up with in a million different ways—they decided to sew some fig leaf underpants. They tried to hide their sin and shame. They tried to pretend that they weren’t naked before the Lord.
But it didn’t work. It never does. You an I may be able to hide our nakedness before other people but we cannot hide it before God. Who you are isn’t the image that you project before people. Who you really are is who you are alone before Almighty God. And these little experiences of being exposed with a booger hanging out your nose are just little reminders that fig-leaf underpants don’t work.
The only thing that really covers our nakedness is the garments that the LORD provides. Notice in Genesis 3:21 that God provides garments for the man and woman. This is a foreshadowing of the garments of righteousness that will be provided by the Lord Jesus. In fact Christ Himself is that garment. The blood that was shed to provide clothing for Adam and Eve is a prefiguring of the blood that will be shed milleniums later outside Jerusalem to finally and fully cover the nakedness of God’s people.
The question for us today is this, am I covered by Jesus or am I simply sewing fig-leaf underpants for myself. This is more than a “have you been saved” type of question. Because once we are saved that begins the process of trading in our tattered and weak attempts at covering for the precious garments provided by Christ. So where are you hiding? And how will you go about giving that shame to Jesus so that He can cover it with more than a pathetic band-aid of human pride and hiding?
For more check out this past post: Fig Leaf Underpants.
