@Mr E
So is the covering a good thing, or a bad thing?
I was always taught that having my sins covered was good. But you seem to be suggesting that the covering is a barrier between God and man, in a bad way. Have I misunderstood?
It's a wonderful thing, but it really is a barrier at the same time. This is easily understood with respect to that amniotic sac. The baby is it's own person. It has it's own blood and organs and DNA that is entirely different than the mother's-- (the host). If not for that covering the baby could not form or function or exist-- it would be treated by the mother's immune system as a foreign body (which it is) and attacked.
In the spiritual sense, the barrier (or covering) both protects and separates us from a Holy God. Our corrupted flesh is completely incompatible with His Holy Spirit. The division is between spirit and flesh. Between the spiritual and the physical, between God and man.
In Genesis, we see that covering as a membrane-- skin. It keeps the inside inside, and the outside outside. I'm speaking in archetypes where there is an inner man that is spiritual in nature and an outer man that is physical. That inner man must pass through that veil (shedding it) in order to be united with God, who is spirit and not flesh.