How Genesis 3:21 Illustrates Proverbs 10:12

Yes, this is another one of those posts born out of Professor Horner’s Bible Reading Plan. As I’ve said before, I love how reading in different places all in one day often yields unexpected juxtapositions. Today’s involves both Genesis and Proverbs.

It started with reading Genesis 3:21:

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

A bit later I read this in Proverbs 10:12:

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.

I’ve read that verse in Proverbs for years, and of course understood that Jesus’s blood covers our transgressions completely, but this truth took on a whole new concrete meaning in light of my relationship with others after reading Genesis 3:21. Suddenly I understood what love covering transgression looks like. It looks like God creating garments for Adam and Eve.

Have you ever considered that God wasn’t bothered by their nakedness–even after they sinned? They’d been naked before Him from the moment they were created. And of course until they chose disobedience, they were “naked and unashamed.” But once they realized their nakedness, they felt exposed. They sought to make their own coverings. They hid.

The transgression was evident to them and to God, but God didn’t turn His back and walk away from the relationship. Instead, after enacting consequences for their sin, He extended kindness and love to them by covering them, even though their nakedness was not the real problem.

So when the Lord tells me that “love covers all transgressions”, this is one of the ways I can demonstrate that to those with whom I walk in relationship–especially those closest to me, like my husband and my children. I can acknowledge their sin and its consequences, but then I can cover their shame and walk forward in relationship. And I hope their love will cover my transgressions in the same manner.