God Loves Hide and Seek, Because He Loves What He Finds

Do you remember playing hide and seek as a child? I remember sometimes hiding so well that I began to wonder if anyone was still looking for me. Life can feel the same way. In the midst of life's struggles and even our own failures, when we want to hide, we ask ourselves, "Is anyone still looking for me?

The Bible records the first incidence of hide and seek. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they hid from God and from each other. In the midst of their hiding, God came seeking them and calling to them by asking, "Where are you?"

The irony is that, in the midst of their sin against God, they should have been crying out to God. Why didn't they? I believe because their sin was too much for them to bear, their shame to deep for them to acknowledge, their guilt great for them to embrace and their failure too much for them to admit. In the midst of their hiding, I wonder if they felt God would be angry and reject them. Yet in the midst of their hiding, God came seeking and calling.

The Bible records one person who in fact did cry out to God the Father, when filled with sin. Jesus Christ, when he absorbed our sin on the cross, cried out to God, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" In essence, as Jesus became sin on our behalf, he cried out to God, yearning for that eternal relationship to be restored. In a sense, when filled with our sin, he was crying out to God, "Where are you?"

Jesus said his mission was to seek and to save the lost - all who are hiding in sin. Part of his seeking involved absorbing our sin. He knew it was too much for us to bear. Jesus knew our sin, shame, guilt and failure was too much for us to bear, so he sought us out, in order to bear our sin.

Do you feel lost? Are you hiding? Are you wondering does anybody see me? Is anyone even thinking of me, much less looking for me? Be encouraged, Jesus loves hide and seek, becasue he loves what he finds...you. He is calling out to you by name and he has absorbed your shame. He has shown you the way, as he himself called out to God the Father when he took on our sin. Now call upon him amidst your own sin and the damage of other's sins upon you. Even when we hide and fail to call out to Him, He still seeks and calls out to us.

Beams Away!