Hide and Seek

There is nothing better than playing hide and seek with a toddler! When it’s your turn to hide, they stare at you wide eyed as they count to ten, skipping a few numbers here and there for good measure. And when it’s their turn to hide, they shout, “Here I am!” Or they simply stand right in front of you with squinted eyes. Even if a toddler is an advanced hide and seek player, you will notice a significant body part protruding from behind a table leg that has no business concealing anything.

It conjures up a childhood memory of mine where I was hiding in our laundry room closet sitting atop the dryer, waiting to be found. After a few minutes, it occurred to me that maybe I had been forgotten. So I went in search of my seeker who had indeed been diverted by a pop tart and was happily watching the Flintstones on our kitchen tv.

The Bible says, “Your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” What does that mean?

For me, it means I will never be forgotten. Last Sunday I returned to church after a lengthy time away due to Covid. I was sitting at the end of a pew and as the church filled with people, no one sat next to me. Not even close. I felt a wave of loneliness. People were greeting one another with unmasked abandon. And I felt alone…in the very place where a sense of connection was supposed to be most felt. Then that verse came to mind. My life is hidden with Christ in God. God was beside, behind, and before me.

For there is only one true seeker. He is the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to seek the one who is lost, the one trying to hide.

And the truth is we can never hide from his presence – though we may try, in toddler fashion, to squat behind a table leg.

God says, “Behold I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The only proper response to this is “Here I am.”