"walking in the garden in the cool of the day"

Today I was thinking about loss and change.  I recently had a very good friend of mine move away and all of a sudden it dawned on me...I can't call him at 11pm and say "do you want to get a cup of coffee?".  I can't just stop by his house and say hi.  All spontaneous meetings will instead have to be phone calls, emails, and other forms of distant communication. Similar feelings surface when someone you know passes away.  You begin to realize that you will never talk to them, see a movie with them, or any # of fill in the blank things with them again.  I'm not saying that someone moving away is the same as someone dying, but the thought process is similar, just not final.

This got me thinking about prayer.  Specifically, what it is, why it is the way that it is, and how it got to be that way.  Over the course of the next several days, I will be delving into this topic.  Especially after seeing the importance of prayer on the spiritual warfare front, I want to have a better understanding of prayer, what God's word says about prayer, and I want to learn to pray unceasingly, learn to be more cognizant of Prayer, be more reverent in my approach to prayer, and most of all, I just want God to teach me more through His word about prayer.  

Tonights scripture doesn't necessarily deal directly with prayer, but I feel it is very relevant.  I figure what better place to start than in the beginning.  

Genesis 3;8-9

8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, Where are you?
The imagery in this passage paints a picture of a very intimate, close relationship.  To imagine the sound of "the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day" gives me chills.  Then God called out to Adam.  God was looking for him.  God was seeking Adam out, to spend time with him, talk with him, have some kind of personal interaction.  We all know how Genesis 3 pans out, Adam & Eve, because of their sin, are cast out of the Garden and from that day forward sin has been in the nature of every man & woman ever born. 
I find this passage in Genesis 3 to be absolutely paramount as the beginning for a study on prayer because this is where the dynamic of the relationship changed. This is where mankind went from being able to walk with the LORD God in the cool of the day and being intimate and familiar, to having a riff between man and God that required the spilling of blood as atonement for our sin.  The dynamic of the relationship changed so much that in order to right our wrongs that the LORD God sent his Son to pay the price for our sin, to restore us unto Himself.   I'm looking forward to this study on prayer over the next several days.