Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
This was a little desperate, but for all they knew, God was coming to kill them. [W]hen you eat [of the tree] you will certainly die (Genesis 2:17), he warned. God had given them life, and now he was free to take it away.
Like our first parents we also try to hide from God. Some hide by putting God out of their minds. Others hide by neglecting his word. Others hide behind religion, instead of relating to God himself. Nothing comes more naturally to guilty sinners than trying to hide from God.
Genesis 3:9 But the Lord God called to the man, Where are you?
This is God seeking man, not to kill him, but to restore him. This idea is so important that Jesus repeated it several times. The good shepherd searches for his one lost sheep (Luke 15:4). The distressed woman searches for her one lost coin (Luke 15:8). And the rejected Father looks down the road searching for his one lost son (Luke 15:20). For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10), said Jesus.
A little boy was separated from his father at the county fair. He was surrounded by some of the best stuff in the world, but he could not enjoy it because he did not know where his father was. But after his father found him, the little boy enjoyed his father and the fair more than ever. God is not seeking lost people to punish them, but to restore them.