Children love that childhood game, Hide and Seek. One person counts with eyes closed, and the others run to some hidden spot, trying not to be found.
That’s the point of the game. If everyone stands in the open, easily seen, it is all pointless. The game will fall apart, the rules broken, and the thrill gone.
Who wants to play a game when the players violate the rules?
This is a concept that God comes back to over and over. 1 Corinthians 1:20-29. 1 Thessalonians 2:3-4. Daniel 7:22.
Run and hide. Search and you will find me. Look. Look harder. Can’t find me? Don’t give up, because I’m there.
Those thoughts run through the minds of the best players, those who hide well and can’t be found. Even so, not to be found at all is equally pointless, boring, even. We start to give clues, calling out taunts or hints to our location. We’re not trying to disappear, only to challenge the person playing the part of “it.”
If they refuse to look, we soon give up hiding. What’s the fun in that?
God loves the game of hide and seek. He wants us to search for him. If he makes himself readily apparent in every situation, what’s the fun in that? Soon, no one will want to play his game.
In Psalm 13:1-3, we read about three things God learns about us as we search for him:
First, he learns what our priorities are.
Verse 1 tells us that David cries out to the Lord, “How long, O Lord, will you hide from me?”
This is not a fleeting prayer of the moment. Rather, David’s words tell us he has clung to the promise of God. He knows God has hidden his face, and he continues to look for him.
Second, he learns how deeply we desire his presence.
Verse 2 tells us David is filled with sorrow. “How long shall I have sorrow in my heart, with my enemy exalted over me?”
David is filled with distress, for without the presence of the Lord, he can know no joy. David’s heart is broken because he longs for the Lord with all his being.
Third, he learns how much we trust in him.
Verse 3 tells of David’s faith in the eventual appearing of the Lord. “Lighten my eyes,” David prays, “lest I sleep the sleep of death.”
David knows the Lord holds the power of life and death in his hands. All it takes is the presence of God Almighty to ensure that life flows through us again. These words carry so much power, that in the End Days, this prayer will contain the very words that precipitate the Second Coming of Christ.
God has established the rules of the game, and each one has a specific purpose in his plan. When we cannot find his face, he’s not gone. Rather, he is just beyond our vision, waiting to be found. He listens to us call to him, and he rejoices in what he hears. Our efforts to find him tell him that he is our treasure and our source of life, and that there is nothing we desire more than him.
He also knows that we will find him, for he desires to be found.
When we cannot find God, he still hears our every cry. He waits in anticipation, because he knows he will be found, if we do not give up on him.
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Code: FGO.B.09.14.vp