Shame

I have always taken issue with the idea of shame. I read the story of the garden, where Adam and Eve were naked and felt no shame. I used to hold this as the ideal, thinking that since i was made to be naked, i was born naked, i should feel no shame for my nakedness. I should have no problem with my natural state, nor anyone else's. This is not to say that i was a nudist by any means.
But I thought that it would just be great if people didn't have shame, if they could remove their fig leaves and just be as God made them. Not only with a mind towards their bodily shame, but also to their lives, just own up to what they are, who they are, and be that.
But here is the the thing that I have come to realize: we aren't in the garden anymore. There is a reason we have shame and are aware of our nakedness. There is a reason we know when we are vulnerable and naked. Because we live in a reality of fallenness. We live in a world where sin exists and the devil lurks ready to attack us. Its not a pleasant thought, but its the truth.
So we make clothes out of fig leaves and own our shame and protect ourselves from a sin-filled world. Here is where the interesting juxtaposition happens. We need our fig leaves to protect us from a life outside of the garden, yet we also need to be vulnerable to God, ready to live in the reality of a sin filled world, but also on the Kingdom that has already come, but has not come yet fully.
I'm sure the armor of God applies here; we NEED seething to clothe ourselves, to protect ourselves from this vulnerability that comes from our shame. But don't you see?! As I explain poorly, it is our shame that allows for us to receive grace, it is out shame that makes us susceptible to salvation! How great a gift is our shame?
When we own our shame, we are in a position ready to receive our lord as it is there we have an honest identity and it is there that we are able to die so that we might receive life!

I need to work on organizing my thoughts.