There’s no anxiety. There’s no fear. No striving. There’s complete and total freedom. All of your needs are perfectly met.
In a word, you experience love, and you realize that God is there with you. He’s within you. He’s all around you. You are held securely and safely in him. You see his handiwork, and you’re filled with total awe and wonder. Your heart is filled with such joy knowing that out of all of the works, the best one and the one that he loves infinitely above all the rest is the one that bears his perfect image, and that’s you.
But then, in a moment, everything changes. One lie, one choice, one bite. All of a sudden, your eyes are opened, but it actually feels like someone turned off the lights. There was peace, and now you notice unrest and turmoil. Where there was trust, now there’s fear, distrust, suspicion. Where there was communion, now isolation and loneliness. And what do you do?
You hide. Suddenly, you hear him, with sadness but with longing in his voice, calling out, “Where are you?” You feel the shame. Instead of running toward him, your heart starts to beat quickly and your face flushes. You just want to run away. That life, that intimacy and communion that you knew is now gone, and the fullness in your heart is replaced with a deep emptiness, alonging, a void.The wages of sin is death. Not because he left you, but it is because you chose to leave him.
Step from the bushes of shame and turn to God in the Sacrament of Confession. Be reconciled today. The enemy lies in says God will judge and condemn your failure. But God the Father will only welcome you home – putting the ring on your finger and the cloak over your shoulders. With loving trust come home to God today.