Hide and Seek and Find

Yesterday, the Pea decided we absolutely had to play ‘hide and go seek’ before I left to run errands. She’s a very literal child, and I knew that one game of hide and go seek, in her mind, would equal an hour’s worth of the game. I was meeting someone, and in a bit of a hurry. I told the Pea to go ahead and start counting and I would hide. I chose the wall (car keys in hand, beside the back door, no less) to be my secret spot. She found me in no time, was happy as a clam, and I went on my merry way.
Despite the fact that I know intellectually that God desires to have a close connection with me, for whatever reason, I often picture our relationship as a “hide and seek” arrangement. But this makes no sense at all! God wants to be found. He tells us – many times with those very words -- over and over again in the Bible that He wants to be found.
Those who seek me diligently find me. Proverbs 8:17As I mentioned previously, I’ve been in a “prophets” kind of reading kick lately:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD. Jeremiah 29: 11-14I’m not sure why I turn our bond into an Indiana Jones movie. I often act as though I need to scale the pyramid walls to find the clue that will lead me to the next clue where I will use my double secret rose colored glasses to decipher which direction to turn. For whatever reason, my lesson this week from God has been (resoundingly): “I want to be found. I am not hiding from you. I’m in control. I have a plan – and you play a big part in it. So quit creating your own role, and listen to me explain this first section of my great and mighty blueprints – because, honestly, that’s all you can handle right now. If you saw the whole blueprint, it would blow your mind.”Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something I your days—You would not believe if you were told. Habakkuk 1:5Which reminds me of a week in the life of a parent. I know our family’s calendar. I can orchestrate the symphony of meals, homework, meetings, appointments, practices that comprise that time period. The kiddos rely on me to guide them from one day to the next. Pick ups, drop offs, bus stops…we concentrate on the present. Things go smoothly when they follow my instructions, things tend to get a little rocky when they go off in their own direction.
A few years ago, at a conference, I heard a speaker talk about how he would begin each morning…and then continue throughout the day, saying, “Lord, reveal yourself to me.” My initial instinct was that this was a surefire way of testing God, and I didn’t want to be a part of that action! Wasn’t that like daring God to show himself? (And in my mind, if we were playing “hide and seek”, why in the world would I want to taunt God?) But recently, it has occurred to me that asking God to reveal himself makes complete and utter sense. Saying – praying- this phrase, IS the very act of seeking God. And, as I’ve discovered, He WANTS to be found. So I’ve begun asking God to reveal Himself to me, every morning, every hour, every moment.
In the morning, O LORD, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch. Psalm 5:3And if you’ve been in contact with me, I’ve probably encouraged you to do the same. Because, the crazy – yet completely rational – truth is: God replies. When you ask God to reveal Himself, and then EXPECT to hear from Him, you begin to FIND Him, well…everywhere. And you begin to realize that what you formerly explained away as coincidences, maybe aren’t coincidences at all. But divine interventions, from God revealing Himself to you – the object of His love – because you began to seek Him, and discovered that He isn’t hiding after all.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7