My bible reading plan restarted (for me) a few days ago, so now I’m reading through Genesis again. This part got me thinking:

Genesis 3:21

“…the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”

This is a familiar verse. In spite of their sin, God made Adam and Eve’s clothes for them. He made them out of animal skins. Their condition was brought on by their sin, yet God lovingly crafted clothing to cover their shame.

What struck me though was that this was the second pair of clothing that Adam and Eve had. Remember their first?

Genesis 3:7:

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

Adam and Eve’s first outfits were made by their own hands. But they didn’t cover them completely. They were only loincloths. When they would eventually be exposed to the elements outside the garden, their clothes would be painfully insufficient.

So, God made clothing for them that would be sufficient outside the garden.

This serves as a reminder of our own, fatally insufficient efforts to cover our shame in sin. All of our good works are as “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). They aren’t enough to cover our sin. But God, graciously clothes those who believe in the completely sufficient blood of his own son.