Hide and Seek

Little Bit loves Hide and Seek in any way, shape, or form. And she is gradually learning how to play the game…

As a toddler, she would hide in the exact same spot every single time, and it wasn’t even a place where she was hidden! She would just stand beside the TV cabinet, out in the open, with her nose kind of in the corner, peeking around to see if anyone was coming to find her. And you could tell by the expression on her face and how she was trying to hold her breath, that she thought no one could see her.

Nowadays she chooses some pretty decent hiding places that are actually behind or under things, but she will still usually answer when the seeker calls. And if she thinks you’re taking too long to find her, she will start “whistling” or making some kind of noise to help you along.

Little Bit also loves to hide things that are not herself. Several times, she has claimed a toy was missing, but she had actually hidden it (usually in her pretend microwave) so she could act like there was a mystery to be solved. And here lately, her favorite bedtime game is hiding Daddy with her blanket and instructing me to find him. She puts a lot of effort into making her child size blanket cover her full-size parent!

So, I’ve had this hide-and-seek business on my mind because I’ve been studying what it means to really seek the Lord. It’s been a topic of discussion in our Sunday School class, and I have personally been seeking some answers in my life. I’ll just share what I’ve learned so far…

First of all, I’ll never find God without His Holy Spirit dwelling within me (see above verse). It’s like the hidden picture puzzles (no idea what they’re called) where you have to lay the colored plastic sheet over the picture to reveal what’s really there. If I don’t have that necessary component, I’ll never clearly see the image.

Secondly, God is there to be found! He is everywhere and in everything. Even when I don’t see Him, HE IS THERE! This is one of my favorite passages of scripture about who God is:

For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Acts 17:23-28

Another thing I’ve learned is that I need to diligently seek Him, not just glance around half-heartedly. The dictionary says that diligently means, “characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort.” Several years before Little Bit was born, we had an epic game of hide-and-seek at our house, with a whole bunch of people and some of the best hiding places. I had hidden between a bed and the wall, not readily found but easy to see if someone looked in the right direction. No one ever found me. Not only did they not see me, but they stopped looking for me. I waited and waited and finally went outside to find everyone else going about their business, unconcerned about me as a missing person!! If someone had just taken a few more steps toward where I was hidden, I would have been discovered.

I don’t want to be that way with the Lord. I want to keep searching and not give up. Sometimes the answers are in plain sight, like when Little Bit was not even hidden, but sometimes they are buried deeply and require thorough, careful detection. What if the place where He wants me to find Him is just a few steps beyond where I’ve gone so far? I don’t want to miss out on something good He has in store, just because I quit too soon.

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:6