He realized the difference between God’s holiness and man’s depravity. He knew that light erases darkness, holiness overpowers depravity.
What he didn’t know at this point, was grace. He had not yet experienced God’s infinite grace to man. Years of church had left him empty, knowing his own hopeless to attain acceptability to God. Yet his heart ached to know God. So, when faced with obvious holiness, Peter fell down in humble submission, and sought to hide from the God he yearned for.
Don’t we do the same thing? Do we shy away from intimacy with God because of the realization of our past? Do those thoughts of our own history and failures make us stay away, run from God as Adam did in the garden? Adam and Eve hid when God came looking to fellowship with them, Peter tried to send Jesus away when he was blessed… What do we do? What do you do?
We have a choice. God is looking for you, now. He calls you by name. He knows you and wants to be your father, to love you inside and out. Yet we hide? Just as God called Adam out from his hiding place in the bushes, just as Jesus sought out Peter, He calls you into salvation, holiness, and intimacy.
What will you do?