They Hid Themselves From the Presence of God

After eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve hide from God in the garden. Their first instinct is concealment. They can't face the presence they used to walk with openly.

Shame creates hiding, and hiding makes shame deeper. I've watched this cycle in myself - doing something wrong, then hiding it, then the hiding becoming its own catastrophe.

The passage shows that this is our most basic move - we hide from God, from ourselves, from each other. Healing requires reversing that instinct, learning to be present instead of hidden.