I usually spend my Wednesday nights molding the minds of the fantabulous teenagers in Revolutionary Youth (I know it’s scary that they consider me an adult leader) but I had the extreme honor of spending two Wednesday nights during July with the fantabulous children of my church. (I fit in much better with 7 year olds than 27 year olds) On Wednesday night, I told my tots one of my favorite childhood stories before we began a night of crafts, relay games and egg hunts. (that’s right the EC has egg hunts in July) I shared the following story mostly because it was appropriate for the lesson but it also proved to all of the adults present that I have been the same for over 20 years. When I was four years old, I was playing a game of hide and seek with my older sister Brandy. (Not only was she the queen of hiding places; she was the champion of any game at the Garcia household.) After losing many times, I opted to be a sore loser and quit. Sometime later my imagination met up with my competitive attitude and complete stubbornness and I came up with the idea to hide under my dining room table. I knew my sister would never find me under the table because the chair legs almost completely concealed my identity. In my four year old mind, my awesome hiding place trumped the fact that I wasn’t actually playing hide and seek with my sister. I knew eventually she would look for me and when she did; I would pop out and claim the best hiding place in the Garcia household. As I waited for Brandy to find me, I took a siesta. (I still covet an afternoon nap) Three hours later I woke up. Just as I was about to crawl out from under the table; I heard my sister. She was having a discussion with my dad explaining to him that she still had not seen me. I retreated to the safety of my dining room hiding spot with an overwhelming feeling of victory. I had finally outsmarted Brandy and this game of hide and seek would go down in the record books at Furbee Avenue.
The game definitely went down in the record books because when Brandy was telling my dad, “I still haven’t seen her” she wasn’t referring to the game of hide and seek I was playing with myself. She was referring to her role in the search party that involved my entire neighborhood. As I was lying safely under my table playing with my imaginary friends, my family and my neighbors were frantically searching for me. After spending an entire day under my dining room table, I surrendered my hiding spot simply because Brandy came into the dining room to get her coat and I assumed that she was getting to play outside after dark and I wasn’t. (I didn’t play outside for a long time after that) When I walked into my living room and my dad saw my safely standing there; he embraced me for a long time and then the punishment began. My dad’s initial reaction is the same reaction we receive from God when we finally crawl out of our hiding places and stand before Him. When we hide from God, we are playing hide and seek with ourselves because we can’t truly hide from God. Not only is He omnipresent but He loves us way to much to turn away from us at any point during our lives. We can create the best hiding places from the truths of our lives but as we hunker down and hide from everything we desperately wish would fade away; God is right there hunkering down beside us. As we try to hide from everything Satan is using to keep us from experiencing the life God desperately wants us to have; He is saying: “Where will you hide my child, where will you hide? As soon as we go in to hiding, we start searching for Earthly gains to fill the void in our hearts that only God can fill. We start fighting the only One we can never truly hide from. God knows our hearts better than we could ever dream to know them friends. He created us and He planned each step we take to get to our record setting our hiding places. God doesn’t have a search party because He never leaves us alone in our hiding places. He loves us with an unfailing love even when we try to outsmart Him and outlast Him. We can’t outsmart or outlast God because His imagination and competitive attitude go into overdrive when one of His children goes into hiding. God is prepared to spend entire days or even years waiting for us to come out of hiding but we don’t have to wait friends. God is standing right there waiting to embrace you. What is causing you to hide from God? What shelter provides false comfort? He wants to replace all of your favorite hiding places with all of Him. He wants you to find comfort in His shelter not the shelters of this world. He wants to rescue your heart, soul, and mind so you can rest safely in Him even if your favorite resting spot consists of curling up on His lap underneath your dining room table.
“and not a God far away? 24 Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?”
declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.
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