Genesis 3:9 English Standard Version (ESV) But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

When I wake up and I do not find my wife in bed sleeping beside me, I get up and go looking for her. I do so because I love her and want to be with her.

God loves us and comes looking for us in that same manner. He loves us and seeks to have the personal love connection each and every morning. You in Genesis 3:9 and 3:11 is the singular form of the Hebrew word. It is personal, it is not the collective you. God wants to spend personal time with you.

That hasn’t changed.

“Where are you?”

Were your first thoughts in the morning about God and spending time with Him in a close personal relationship? If we are to have a close personal relationship with our God, then as in all relationships we must set aside time to get personal.

Over the past week or so I have shared with you my memories of coming back to God by reading my bible. I did not know how to study the bible. I didn’t have it “all figured out”. As adults there will always be this sense of need to understand, to reason, to rationalize, to get involved.

When we are born again, we are a new creature, a babe in Christ. Do babies understand everything going on around them? They tend to love instinctively because they are loved. The bond between the mother and child is necessary for good emotional growth. The bond makes the difference, not the baby’s understanding.

Red the Word towards that same end. Love being loved. See the reading of your bible as a means of getting to participate in this relationship. It should not be work. It is not education, it is relationship.

Decades late none of that has changed. I have changed but the love that I have draws me back to maintaining the relationship in the same way. Reading His Word is an exercise in relationship, a way to love God in a personal way.