“Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.”
Proverbs 10:12
During 2026, Peachtree Church is inviting everyone into Cultivate, a churchwide discipleship plan centered on the fruit of the Spirit and the kind of life God longs to grow in us. Throughout the year, we’ll explore how love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control take shape in everyday life through the Spirit’s work. Cultivate brings together worship, Scripture, group guides, and meaningful practices designed to meet you where you are and support growth in ways that fit your season. These twice-weekly devotionals are one way to stay connected, offering reflection and grounding for daily life with God. Whether you engage in many ways or just one, you’re invited to be part of this shared journey of becoming more rooted in who God has created and called you to be.
Devotional
When I read this verse, my mind goes to the first “covering” in Scripture: Genesis 3.
Adam and Eve eat the fruit, and suddenly everything changes. The text tells us:
“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Genesis 3:7
Their first instinct was to cover.
They tried to manage their own shame. They reached for what was available and stitched something together. But fig leaves are thin. Human attempts at covering always are. We work hard to protect ourselves. We attempt explain ourselves. We think we can justify our actions. Like a child, we often want to go and hide.
When God comes into the garden, he does not pretend nothing has happened. He enters into the moment and draws Adam and Eve out from their hiding. He asks questions that invite honesty, not because he lacks information, but because he is calling them into truth. He speaks clearly about what they have done and about the consequences that will follow. Yet that is not the end of the story.
At the close of the chapter we read: “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Genesis 3:21
God covered them. He did not leave them standing there in their shame, and he did not let them keep relying on the flimsy coverings they had made for themselves. Instead, God stepped in and gave them something better, clothing that would truly cover them and endure.
From the earliest pages of Scripture, we see this truth: sin is real, but it does not have the final word. God does.
When Proverbs says, “love covers over all wrongs,” it is not inviting us to pretend harm never happened. God did not pretend the fruit was never eaten. Covering is God’s mercy meeting our failure.
Hatred would have left them exposed. It would have shamed them and withdrawn. But love moved toward them and covered them.
That pattern unfolds through the whole story of Scripture until we come to the cross. There, Jesus bears our exposure. He carries our shame. He becomes the covering we could never make for ourselves.
Love that covers reflects the heart of God. It refuses to use another person’s weakness as leverage. It does not reopen what grace has addressed. It seeks restoration instead of humiliation.
We love this way because mercy has already been extended to us.
The church is meant to be a people who know what it is to be covered. Because we have received mercy, we learn to extend it in the world.
For Reflection
- Where am I still trying to manage my own shame with “fig leaves”?
- Where am I tempted to expose rather than extend mercy?
- How has Christ covered me in ways that shape how I respond to others?
Prayer
Gracious God,
You saw us in our shame and did not turn away.
You named our sin honestly, and still You clothed us with mercy.
Where I am hiding, meet me.
Where I am defensive, soften me.
Where I am tempted to expose someone else, remind me how fully You have covered me in Christ.
Teach me to love in ways that restore dignity and reflect Your grace.
Clothe me in Christ, that I may clothe others in mercy.
In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
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Devotionals