We’re pretty creative beings… especially when it comes to trying to cover our tracks.  I’m pretty confident this isn’t a learned behavior – although I’m sure we do gain insight by watching others along the way – but this desire to hide is woven into the very DNA of our sin nature.  So it is with us from birth.

There are things you laugh about as a parent even though I’m fairly sure we’re not supposed to.  Tonight held one of those moments.

I had dad duty as Brooke was off meeting a client.  So I whipped up some dinner, got the boys ready for bed and even provided a treat for desert after they finished a chore and successfully ate all their dinner.  They are all peacefully sleeping when Brooke arrives later to have her dinner.  Then I hear her start to laugh as she asks, “Whose green beans are these wrapped up in the napkin?”  

I had been duped.  The classic hide the food you don’t want to eat in your napkin.  He almost committed the perfect crime (if not eating your green beans is a crime) but he forgot a crucial step… get rid of the evidence.  And all I could do was laugh.  I’m not sure that was the appropriate parental response.

Right away I knew who it was and without giving names, I’ll just tell you it was #2.  “Yes, Dad, I ate all my dinner.”

I had flashbacks.  Let’s just say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  I was known for some creative disposal of food as well.  Although, I don’t ever recall my parents laughing.

But then I flashbacked a little further.  All the way back to the beginning.  I wasn’t there for this one, but I know the story pretty well.  You see, our first parents tried to get away with it too.  Their crime was much different than green beans, although it did involve food.  And disobedience is disobedience no matter who it is in relation to.  However, theirs was directly against Almighty God.  They ate the fruit and tried to cover it up.  And when they were exposed… they tried to hide.

We just can’t help ourselves, but that is no excuse.  Whether big or small, our sin always causes us to try to cover it up and hide.  To do whatever we can to get away with because our nature is corrupt.  This manifests itself in our lives from the moment we take our first breath and it we will fight against this instinct until the day we breathe our last.

And for most of us, it will show up in much bigger ways than hiding some green beans in a napkin.  Which points us to the reality that we can’t manage our sin and we most certainly can’t fix ourselves.  This is why Jesus came.  He came to do what we couldn’t do – live in perfect obedience to God His Father… never once needing to cover anything up or hide.  And on the cross He took our sin and our hiding and in exchange He gives us His perfect obedience and righteousness.

So the good news is we don’t have to hide anymore!  We can be forgiven and we’re given a new nature.  He places His Spirit in us to do battle against our flesh.  So as you continue to struggle against your flesh… remember you can’t hide and you don’t need to!

And eat your green beans… they’re good for you!